


A Big Easy Romance

by ncruuk



Category: NCIS: New Orleans
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 61,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26618302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ncruuk/pseuds/ncruuk
Summary: When Hannah Khoury transferred to lead the New Orleans Field Office, she'd not planned on getting demoted or starting a new relationship.  She'd certainly not expected to get promoted or fall in love with one of the agents on her former team...but that was New Orleans it seemed.[A Hannah/Tammy new but established romance fic set loosely in a 'what if' post s6 happy place because I like happily ever after stories]
Relationships: Tammy Gregorio/Hannah Khoury
Comments: 39
Kudos: 84





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I promised myself when I started writing this, that I was just going to write a short little fluffy one-shot about Hannah arriving late to a team drinks at the TruTone and Tammy dragging her onto the dancefloor to relax....I really should have known better.
> 
> That little moment is now embedded in a big fic in my own little Hannah/Tammy happily ever after NCIS-'verse in which Hannah's demotion gets not only reversed but she gets a promotion or two, she and Tammy get to be happily fluffy and domestic with each other while still being awesome agents that scare Sebastian and Patton.... so basically just another ncruuk accidental epic.
> 
> But hey, if ever there was a time when we needed more happily fluffy domestic f/f romance between awesome women it's now right?
> 
> [Because I like a challenge, I'm writing this despite only seeing the first 10 episodes of s6 (hello from the UK)...let me know if I've got anything horribly wrong based on what happens in the rest of the season please? Otherwise I'll correct as I advance through the rest of the season, one week at a time (oh for a binge watch!)

“Is everything okay?” asked Sebastian, seeing Tammy frowning at her phone which, now he thought about it, had made the text message alert sound a few times while she’d been in interrogation with their suspect who had finally obliged them with a confession.

“Sec Nav was running late so her meeting was delayed by an hour…”

“Oh.” Sebastian had known from earlier in the week that this Sec Nav meeting had already been rescheduled three times, so what had originally been a nice safe Tuesday late morning meeting was now in the ‘really should be on the way to the airport’ Thursday afternoon part of the week. “That’s not good.”

Not sure what else to say, knowing how volatile his friend’s mood could be in the moments after receiving a message like that, Sebastian began tapping away on his keyboard as he continued to write up his case notes, though he kept half an eye on his friend as she sat down at her desk and continued to catch up on her messages. He gave up any pretense at working however, when he heard Tammy’s rich chuckle, the one he’d come to associate with the very particular blend of love and amusement that only seemed to bubble out of his friend when Hannah was the one making her laugh. “...that turned around quick.”

“Weather delay. The plane was delayed even later than Sec Nav.”

“She made it?”

“She made it,” confirmed Tammy, a bright smile on her face as she leaned back in her chair and, despite being sat facing Sebastian, he knew she wasn’t actually looking at him.  _ That  _ smile wasn’t ‘his’ smile, though it was a smile that made him feel really happy for his best friend.

“Alrighty then.” He stretched his arms out in front of him, fingers interlaced, like he was loosening them up. “Last one to finish buys the beers?”

“Hey!” Startled from her thoughts, Tammy pinged a convenient elastic band at his, her aim unerringly accurate and a subtle reminder that as well as being a profiler she counted sharpshooter amongst her skillset. “Not cool baby…” 

“First, I meant first one to finish buys the beers.” He didn’t give in this easily every time, not anymore, but in this instance she did have a point - he’d started writing his notes up while she was still in interrogation getting inside their suspect’s head. Plus, it was Thursday - Tammy never needed any additional incentives to finish up her paperwork on a Thursday.

* * *

“No, don’t do this to me…” muttered Hannah when she saw a member of the cabin crew making a beeline for her seat when they were just about halfway through the flight from D.C. to New Orleans. Then again, she should have known she’d used all her good luck up when the Sec Nav’s secretary had slipped her a note that the flight was delayed and she’d still be able to catch it after all.

“Excuse me, are you Agent Khoury?”

“Yes, I’m Special Agent Khoury…” Hannah reached inside her jacket and pulled out her credentials, knowing she was always already known to the cabin crew on these flights because of the paperwork she had to complete since she flew with her weapon. It was a bit of a mixed blessing really, as it did make her ability to arrive at the airport last minute and leave very rapidly on arrival much easier, as she’d proved this evening, but it also removed any anonymity she might have on the flight. She’d never really considered how often there were disagreements and disputes amongst passengers on aircraft before she was doing this weekly flying commute, but rarely a month went by when there wasn’t some tense moment involving a passenger that was more easily diffused by her calm, quiet appearance and firm enquiry as to what exactly was going on.

“...there’s a call for you.”

“Ah, okay.” Unfastening her seatbelt, Hannah stood and began to follow the cabin crew member down the aisle to the nearby galley service area, instinctively tucking her badge on her belt so it was clear at a distance why she was maybe moving around despite the seatbelt sign being on. “Thanks.” Smiling at the helpful but clearly bemused crew, she waited a moment until they’d passed out of earshot then directed her attention to the phone. “This is Khoury...”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“I know that look…” observed Anna, the older lady who still kept her long hair neatly tidied away in a bun at the nape of her neck, rejoining her dinner companion at the bar stools in the Tru Tone that had somehow become ‘theirs’ during the last few weeks. “...what’s bugging you?”

“The band’s playlist.” Evelyn knew there was no point denying the preoccupation she had with the puzzle, all her ‘tells’ were too recognisable to be missed by her best friend of fifty years or more.

“What about it?”

“I can’t work out why it changes when it does…and only on a Thursday...”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about….thanks Jimmy.” Anna smiled at the friendly but not sleazy guy behind the bar, who had been a big part of the decision to make this their ‘local’ when they moved to New Orleans, with him happy to chat when it was quiet but never tried aggressively prying into their lives, as he delivered their drinks. He was just another element of this particular bar that had somehow made them feel like they were getting to sample a proper slice of their new home town’s atmosphere without feeling uncomfortable or unsafe.

“What’s the mystery?” asked Jimmy, picking up the dishcloth from where it lay over his shoulder and started to dry the glasses he’d washed right before getting their beers.

“The band, every Thursday, the music changes for about 15 minutes? Only on a Thursday and it doesn’t seem to happen at a specific time. Why does it randomly change?” asked Evelyn, her napkin doodles revealing her life spent as a mathematics teacher and a need to find the pattern.

“Ah.” Grinning, Jimmy picked up another glass and began to dry it. “It ain’t so random…” His ever watchful eye caught sight of a familiar face entering the bar and he moved along to be level with the vacant stool. “Hey Doc…”

“Jimmy…” Loretta Wade sat down at the next bar stool and, her bag still clutched under her arm, looked around the still fairly quiet bar.

“You’re the first.” It wasn’t unheard of for the Doc to get to the bar before some of his brother’s agents, but glancing at the clock on the wall, she’d not exactly set a record for starting early today.

“They had a late break in the case.” She’d had a text from Dwayne a few minutes after the suspect had finally confessed, which fortunately for her, had meant she just needed to write a quick final note on the file that could now fully explain the Marine’s premature death before she could declare her Thursday finished. “But they’ll be here when the paperwork’s done.”

“Yeah?” Jimmy grinned, pleased for his brother and his team. Jimmy sometimes worked out what their various cases were from what he read in the newspaper each morning, but usually it was so long after the fact it didn’t actually help him pinpoint exactly what was going on at any given moment. And he didn’t really care if he was honest, not needing to know what was angering or upsetting the individual agents when a case was tough for them, as knowing the details didn’t change how he could help them, which was with a decent plate of food, a drink to listen to some tunes with and a few minutes to remember that not all of the world was evil. “Good day for the good guys…” He looked at the Coroner, a small smile on his face as he sized her up. “I’ll bring you a glass of wine while you wait for the team.”

“Thanks Jimmy.” She had no idea how he did it, but he’d mastered the bartender’s art of knowing how to tell when she felt like starting with the grape not the grain. “Ladies.” And, with a polite smile to the two quiet women who she’d started to recognise each week keeping themselves to themselves, she went to one of the tables that would eventually see the whole team gathered around it.

* * *

  
  


“You’re sure?” Hannah leaned her head against the wall next to the phone unit and closed her eyes, trying to visualise the satellite images they’d been pouring over all week as she mentally translated code names into place names and suspects.

“Fine, no…” She looked at her watch, which was still on DC time, and mentally adjusted for first New Orleans then where their suspects were. “...if you wait for me to land it’ll be too late.” She ran through the various best and worse case scenarios she could think of and calmly made her decision. “I’ll join once I’ve landed, but you can go when you’re ready.” She smiled, listening to her ASAC’s slightly surprised reaction. “I’m sure.” And she was - it was sheer dumb luck that a weather system had made it impossible to do the mission two days ago when they’d planned, but she quickly come to trust her team - perhaps not yet to cover her during a shoot out on the docks like Pride, Gregorio and Sebastian, but in terms of reviewing the intelligence available and determining whether they could recommend the field op happen she had no reservations about their ability - and they’d already thought they’d lost this opportunity for this month. “Have someone meet me please, once you’ve decided?” She laughed, surprising the not very subtly eavesdropping cabin crew, their experience clearly indicating that when secure phone calls on ‘matters of National Security’ came via the cockpit for Federal Agents, laughter was not usual. “You’ve clearly never visited New Orleans Tom,” she joked, before a final affirmation that yes, he did have her authority to initiate the raid when ready, and yes, someone texting Agent Gregorio about the change of plan would be appreciated, she replaced the phone in the handset cradle, slightly dazed. It would take a bit longer for her to not be surprised by the D.C. agents just accepting she had a relationship with another agent and offering to pass on an update about her flight delay and change of plans.

“Ma’am?” The crew had been alerted to the end of her call by the quiet ping as she returned the handset, nudging Hannah from her thoughts.

“Thank you.” Hannah kept her facial expression carefully calm and warm as she thanked the crew for the inconvenience her call had no doubt caused them. “My colleagues will be meeting us when we land, I’ll be getting off rather quickly.” She had no idea if her ride would be a car or a helicopter, with the Thursday night traffic the helicopter would be a welcome shortcut though she could already picture the reaction it would get if Pride’s team found out about it.

“Of course Ma’am.” The crew member had no idea what that meant, but they’d flown enough flights in and out of D.C. to recognise when someone was involved in the real serious end of national security things and when they were a fake, and there was nothing remotely fake about this Agent. “Do you have any checked luggage?” 

* * *

  
  


“Alrighty, who’s not drinking beer?”

“The Doc,” said Patton, seeing the Coroner already sat at a good table and propelling himself across the still empty space that would turn into a dance floor later.

“Tammy?” Sebastian paused on one leg, waiting for her answer once she’d read the text message she’d just received.

“Just for us…” She put her phone away and smiled at his immediate look of concern. “...she’s got to go to Belle Chase.”

“Ouch.” Wincing in commiseration, he continued over to greet Dr Wade before continuing over to the bar once he’d taken her drink order. Based on the flight time, if Tammy had just received the message, that meant someone in D.C. had thought to text her. Because clearly the Sec Nav’s diary disaster wasn’t enough bad luck for Hannah to have to cope with today.

“You okay?”

“Mmm?” Tammy looked up from her phone and smiled at Patton as she sat down. “Me? I’m fine.” She put her phone down on the table and looked at the concerned face of two of her closest friends. “Really, I’m fine. Sec Nav almost made her miss her flight…” Tammy smiled as she saw the disapproving looks on her friends’ faces, Sebastian the only one to know the story so far.

“You said ‘almost’?” checked Loretta, shrewd eyes studying Tammy for any hint that this was an attempt at a ‘brave face’ in the face of bad news - the Brooklyn agent was very good at putting on a tough facade, but Loretta knew that strength was fueled by love, from friends who’d become family, including one very special Special Agent who sounded like she’d had a less than great Thursday..

“Weather delay in her favour, she was last on.” Tammy’s face broke out into a familiar broad grin as her eyes sparkled. “She thinks it was only her badge and gun that stopped the cabin crew pouring her drink on her head.”

“Now that…” declared Patton, repositioning his chair a little to make room for Pride who’d just arrived.

“Stop it…” protested Tammy feebly, throwing a coaster gently at him, knowing he was trying to picture it, her own amusement starting to surface.

“What?”

“You know what…” As Tammy and Patton began a teasing argument, Dwayne waved to Jimmy then sat down next to Loretta.

“Do I want to know?”

“Hannah was last on the plane...”

“Sec Nav, I heard.” Dwayne moved the candle to the side of the table so Sebastian could put the tray down on the table. “...she caught the flight?”

“Apparently.” Loretta moved her half empty wine glass to the side of the table to make it easier for Sebastian to hand out the drinks, finding himself one short now that Pride had arrived so immediately returning to the bar for an extra one. 

“I’ve not finished this yet, so go ahead…” Loretta moved the beer that Sebastian had put down in front of her in front of her old friend. “Hannah thought the cabin crew would pour her drink over her if she’d not had her badge.” She might not be on the receiving end of Tammy’s playful wrath, but like Patton Loretta was finding the mental image of some hapless cabin crew member trying to ‘accidentally’ spill a drink on the former spy to prove some petty point rather amusing, and judging from the sparkle in Dwayne’s eye, he was too.

“Hope she didn’t ask for tea…” Dwayne’s quiet observation was enough to set Loretta off, which in turn set Patton off again, Tammy not far behind him.

“What?” asked Sebastian, putting the extra beer down in front of Loretta then folding himself into the free chair next to Pride. “What did I miss?”


	2. Chapter 2

“...I don’t believe you.” Patton looked suspiciously at the far too good poker faces of the Doc and Pride, before turning to look at Sebastian for any hint from his more readable friend who was busy scraping the last of his dinner off his plate, not prepared to waste a grain of rice.

“It’s true,” confirmed Pride, taking a sip from his beer as he took in the bar noting how it was getting much busier as the band warmed up.

“A ping pong ball? For real?” His face contorted as he tried to work out how that would work before giving himself a shake and reaching for his beer, deciding that perhaps it was best not knowing.

“How’s she doing?” asked Loretta, smiling as she saw Patton and Sebastian starting to try to resist the urge to work out how exactly a ping pong ball might have ended up in the gut of a corpse on her table, far more interested in seeing what message was making Tammy start to fidget and catch her lower lip between her teeth.

“Good. She’s left Belle Chase.” Tammy looked at her watch then stood up, deciding it wasn’t too early to go ask Jimmy for her girlfriend’s dinner order. “So my round, Doc? Time for a switch?” Tammy grinned brightly when Loretta nodded before heading to the bar, not needing to check to see if the boys were sticking with beer, knowing Sebastian and Patton wouldn’t switch to anything else. And Jimmy would know what Pride was drinking. 

It took her a minute to get to the bar, the space in front of the stage steadily filling with people having a dance to the infectious beats coming from the band, but she managed it without having to arrest anyone for encroaching on her personal space with grabby hands.

“Hey Tammy, ‘nother round?”

“Thanks Jimmy, no more beer for the Doc though but keep the extra one in there.” She had no idea what the Doc’s next drink preference was, but Jimmy being Jimmy knew.

“Sure thing.” He turned to reach for the bottle he needed and started to pour out measures and generally start gathering up the NCIS team’s round. “I’ll bring it for you in a minute, you want me to call up her plate?” The extra beer request meant, he knew, that Hannah must be almost at the bar.

“Thanks baby.” And, with a smile that made her eyes crease from how big it was as she started to think how soon her girlfriend would be here, Tammy headed to the ladies room.

* * *

Jimmy hummed along to the band as he loaded up the tray for his brother’s friends, deciding to drop off another round with his two newest regulars on his way past, pleased to see they were nodding along to the music as they finished their gumbo. So far all he really knew about them was that they’d retired to the City and, like many who moved down here, their new place was more of a construction project than a home for now. Clearly they were nearby, as the Tru Tone had become their nightly kitchen and he’d never seen a cab come pick them up. Beyond that, all he really knew was they were good for half a dozen light beers, two plates of something local and a milky coffee or dessert after and came every night, which was good business. 

They were sharp too, probably teachers he thought, maybe medical something - quiet and observant but not military or law enforcement (those always recognised his brother’s team and either tried to make conversation or actively avoided, but these ladies just stayed the same quiet polite they were with him). The one who’d noticed the music was a little different on a Thursday had been right, Evelyn her friend had called her he thought,...and although he had no idea what time it was, he knew it was time to get the kitchen going on one fresh cooked plate of crawfish  étouffée. 

Which also meant they were only a tune or two away from the change that wasn’t quite so random after all.

* * *

  
  


“Thanks.” Hannah shut the door of the SUV and gave a tired wave to the probationary agent who’d driven her in from, and who now set off to return to Belle Chase. By-passing the door into the busy bar, she used the key Dwayne had given her to go directly into his apartment above the bar. A couple of minutes later, her briefcase and gun safe in his apartment, her suit jacket tossed over a chair along with her raincoat, neither necessary in the New Orleans’ humid warmth, she headed downstairs, instinctively undoing her shirt cuffs as she went.

  
  


“Hannah’s here,” said Sebastian, his seat facing the door that led through to the access upstairs making him the first to see her, so he raised his hand to make it easy for her to spot them.

“Hey…” Hannah approached the table, rolling up her second sleeve, the final stage of casting off her D.C. outer shell, taking in the smiles of greeting from her friends and noting the one missing.

“She’d gone to the bar,” said Loretta, taking hold of Hannah’s right hand and giving it a motherly pat, her way of asking the tall agent if she was doing okay while assuring the former spy that Tammy was fine and had come through the week unscathed. “You got in quick from Belle Chase?”

“Lights and siren - apparently I’m scary.” The sound of bemused innocence in her voice made Sebastian and Patton nearly spray their beer across the table at this, causing everyone else to smile. “What?” A quickly shared look between everyone saw them all agree that they’d let Tammy untangle that one once she got back to the table. “I’m not scary.”

“To us, n…” began Sebastian carefully, relieved when he saw Tammy approaching, her head and shoulders moving in time with the beat of the band as she navigated the dance floor: Hannah’s expression was definitely terrifying him right now. “...not scary at all.”

“Who’s not…” Tammy lost interest in her question when she saw her girlfriend had arrived, her polite smile shifting up several notches to an infectious radiant grin. “...hey baby...” She reached for Hannah’s left hand as Loretta let go of her right one, unsurprised when Tammy began guiding an unresisting Hannah onto the dance floor. Until Tammy and Hannah had been a bit more open with casual hints of affection, it hadn’t been fully appreciated by Loretta quite how many ‘colours’ the New Yorker could inject into ‘baby’, but there was definitely an extra something in how she said it when she was speaking to Hannah that put all other uses of the word in perspective.

“She looks tired,” said Loretta to Pride, her voice quiet so he only just heard her as the band started another verse of the popular upbeat number they were playing, watching as Hannah weave through the other bar patrons to the same patch of dance floor, by the slight alcove, that Tammy always headed for. It was a good spot, Dwayne knew it well as Rita headed for it too, something about the music being not too loud and there always being just the right amount of space to dance without needing to focus too much energy on avoiding bashing elbows with someone else..

“Long days in D.C..” He watched as Tammy coaxed Hannah into, as they’d all come to think of it, shaking off D.C the way they’d so often shake off a long week in the field office, with a good ol’ energetic hip wiggling dance that usually had them laughing at each other within a verse or two.

He had some idea of what the task force Hannah was now leading in D.C. was doing, with Hannah’s previous postings in Oman and elsewhere in the region making her the ideal lead and a huge part of how NCIS managed to be the lead intelligence agency as well as the Navy providing the overseas assets, but ultimately it was outside of his area of expertise and clearance. Losing her, albeit for only a few months, to D.C. had been difficult, but he knew it was someone somewhere trying to apologise to Hannah for her unjustified demotion from team lead and other similar decisions in her past that were downright offensive to Dwayne when he’d learned about them, so he’d been genuinely pleased she was getting the belated recognition and opportunity. Plus it did make it possible for her and Tammy to be open about their still relatively new relationship, with Hannah not, for the moment at least, being Tammy’s boss.

“Thanks Jimmy.” Dwayne helped his brother out by rounding up the empty glasses and stacking them and their now empty dinner plates on the second tray he’d brought, while Jimmy set out the new drinks, including the half mixed Old Fashioned and beer he’d brought for Hannah for when she was here. “You can leave the ice, she’s just arrived.” Dwayne tilted his head in the direction of the dance floor, where Tammy was still teasing Hannah into loosening up and rediscovering her ‘Nola’. “You need a hand?”

“Nah, it’s good.” He winked at his brother as he picked up the tray of dirty plates and glasses, always grateful for his brother’s willingness to man his own bar but wanting him to rest and enjoy his evening with his friends. “You guys need anything?” He saw everyone shake their head and grinned - he’d check again when he brought Hannah’s dinner out of the kitchen in twenty minutes or so.

  
  


Reappearing behind the bar a minute later, having checked the chef was starting on the plate of crawfish  étouffée for Hannah, he headed for the sink, grabbing a fresh dishcloth as he went, realising he’d not dried the last lot of glasses he’d washed. “Doing alright for drinks ladies?” he asked, seeing the two out-of-towners were still sat at the bar, though they’d now finished their dinners.

They nodded, then returned to their earlier conversation as he started to dry the glasses, no one for the moment needing a fresh drink.

“I don’t think it’s a pattern,” said Anna, still not convinced by her friend’s theory of there being a definite explanation for why the music was consistently different on a Thursday night to the other nights they had eaten dinner and enjoyed the music in this bar.

“It’s a pattern.” Evelyn was studying the band, looking for some sort of signal or clue as to why they might be doing something different tonight versus last night.

“You’d be right…” said Jimmy conversationally, polishing another glass, smiling at their shared looks of surprise. “...every Thursday, we play a little different for a couple of songs.” He put down the now dry glass and picked up another after a quick check that no one was waiting on a drink.

“But not tonight?” asked Anna, thinking that they’d usually still been eating every time Evelyn had commented on the music change. 

“Not  _ yet _ tonight,” he corrected, nodding his head towards the dancefloor where he could see that whatever story Tammy had just finished telling Hannah while they’d danced side by side, not that different to how Tammy and Sebastian had danced a while back, had caused Hannah to laugh and bump shoulders with the shorter agent. Her head and shoulders, visible above the shorter dancers around her as for some reason Hannah always managed to stay tall even when dancing, were now much more relaxed and moving fluidly with the music. And if Jimmy could see it, so he knew could Joe on the stage. “But round about now.”

It had started by accident, the first week Hannah had been able to catch the last New Orleans flight out of D.C. on the Thursday night, wanting to be back in the city so she could go cheer on Naomi at her first proper soccer try-out on the Friday after school. Something had gone wrong in D.C., Jimmy had no idea what, but when Hannah did make into town, it was late.

Even with the one hour time difference supposedly working in her favour as she flew West from D.C, Hannah didn’t arrive until gone nine and it was clear to even someone like Jimmy that didn’t know her that well, that she was worn out and stressed from whatever her day had contained. Her normally languid, easy grace was replaced with a stiff, fizzing ferocity being fed by some internally carried stress. Add to that the rigid tension that screamed ‘East Coast visitor’ which he’d watch Dwayne’s lady shake off with a drink or two every time she arrived, and it just seemed wrong to be radiating from someone who was one of ‘theirs’ and made him worry for her. Sure, leading a fancy international mission from D.C. was probably good for her NCIS career, but it hadn’t looked to Jimmy like it was doing much for her.

In retrospect, he’d not been all that surprised when Tammy had immediately dragged her onto the dance floor to loosen up, remembering the New Yorker’s regular taunting of her teammates’ indifferent dancing abilities until they worked their hips loose, her claim that she knew they had their ‘Nola’ in them always proving true. It had proven true on this occasion too, with Tammy’s unique form of wise-cracking silliness and insults interspersed with infectious horn riffs to get Hannah’s feet, hips and shoulders all on the move. 

When, that first visit, he’d seen his brother go up to Joe on the stage a couple of songs later and join in, not as Jimmy had first assumed, playing songs that lifted the bar like he did sometimes on a weekend, but shifting the band into a lazier, almost romantic swirl of a groove, the pattern no one except these two out-of-towners had spotted began to form. Now, a couple of months later, Joe didn’t need Dwayne’s tip off, he could read the room just fine.


	3. Chapter 3

“Tough day baby?” asked Tammy as she caught hold of Hannah’s hand after she’d swept her hair off her face, the bright notes of the upbeat tune having done their job and put the beginnings of the sparkle back in her girlfriend’s eye.

“Mmm…” Hannah nodded as she let herself languidly drift into Tammy’s body, responding to the gentle pull on her arm. “Okay day eventually…” She dropped her free arm onto her girlfriend’s hip and pulled her close, responding to the change in the music as the tempo shifted from a lively bounce to a lazy sway. “...great day now…” she added, closing her eyes as she wrapped both arms around Tammy’s back and gave her a firm, hug, inhaling the intoxicating mix of shampoo and scent and….gunpowder? “You have a range test today?” she asked, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend’s hair, just savouring the feeling of being held by, and of holding Tammy.

“Suspect tried to sneak outta here in a private plane…” explained Tammy, brushing kisses on her girlfriend’s neck and jaw as she spoke. “...took out the tyres to buy the boys some time.” She wasn’t surprised that Hannah had guessed she’d used the rifle - while they were never all that far from gunpowder residue, when she turned her cap around and started shooting using the ‘scope the residue and smoke from the high velocity rounds covered her face and hair, adding a distinctive smokiness to her hair that always took two washes to shift.

“Sneaky.” Hannah felt the muscles in her back and shoulders start to relax as the subconscious need to be strong and calm in the face of D.C. politics and chaos was put aside, not quite so easily removed as her raincoat and suit jacket, but just as quickly forgotten about once cast aside. “Mmm…” It would be so easy to arch her neck and let her head drop back, in silent plea to Tammy to lavish her love on the sensitive spots she’d mapped methodically along Hannah’s neck and jaw, but not just yet. So she instead turned her head, nudging Tammy’s mouth away from her neck with the movement of her chin and slid her hands down until they were resting on the gentle curve of her girlfriend’s hips. Still moving in sync together to the lazy swirling rhythm of the slower, mellower song that told a tale of love in the Summertime, Hannah put just enough distance between them to create the natural angle for their lips to touch and begin their own slow dance.

* * *

  
  


“What….oh!”

Based on Evelyn’s reaction when she finally saw Tammy and Hannah kissing as they danced to the slow tune, Jimmy paused in his glass polishing, wondering if he’d misjudged the ladies who’d up til now seemed fairly relaxed for out-of-towners. And then he saw that she’d reached for her friend who, as the lights caught the narrow gold band on their hands that looked mighty similar to Jimmy, he suddenly realised were maybe not friends...or at least, not just friends.

“Oh…” The one who’d been unconvinced there was a pattern or significance to the change in the music every Thursday kept hold of her friend’s outstretched hand but turned and looked at Jimmy, an unreadable emotion in her expression. “...but this isn’t a g...g….”

“A gay bar?” He took pity on her nervousness, not recalling ever having seen her stutter before, beginning to have a bit of an idea what might be the case. “No ma’am, the Tru Tone’s just a bar, for good people to have a good time. Don’t matter to us who it’s with, so long as it’s good folks doing it.” He saw their gazes gravitate back to Hannah and Tammy, Hannah’s white shirt catching the lights from the stage as she slowly spun Tammy out and then drew her back to her body, the way she was moving to different rhythms within the song making Jimmy think the taller agent probably danced a fairly mean salsa, or did he mean samba... “How long you two been together ladies? If you don’t mind my asking?”

“Since we were in our early twenties.” Evelyn looked at Jimmy with a cool, steady look that reminded him of a school teacher he’d had as a kid, then her face broke into a soft smile, like she’d just remembered it was 2020. “When we were two kinds of illegal.” It took him a moment to realise she was referring to their gender and her partner’s whiteness.

He whistled softly, not sure he could think of anyone who was still going in their relationship after twenty years, never mind as many as these fine ladies had managed in what must have been challenging at times.

“Well if you have a favourite tune you ever want to dance to, I’m sure Joe or Dwayne will know it, and if they don’t, they’ll get on and learn it for you.”

Joe they knew was the name of the trumpeter playing on the stage just now, but ‘Dwayne’ was a new name to them, and Anna asked who he was.

“He’s the guy in the blue shirt on that table over there, my big brother and this is his place. Plays the keys sometimes.” He saw their looks of surprise that he was manning the bar while the owner took the apparently easy life drinking beer and chatting to his friends. “He’s a Federal Agent, that’s his team” Mentioning that Dwayne had another job and responsibilities had the intended effect on the couple, as they realised he wasn’t actually shirking by sitting at a table, but supporting Jimmy in a different way. “This place…” Jimmy looked around at the Tru Tone, smiling at the familiar bricks and details. “...you just remember this is a good place to be ladies, livin’ the truth’s always welcome at the Tru Tone.” He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and excused himself to go serve someone further down the bar.

* * *

  
  


“Mmm….” It was Tammy’s turn to struggle to remember that they were dancing in the Tru Tone, their friends just a few feet away as she completed the easy twirl Hannah had coaxed her into and she relaxed back against Hannah’s chest, content to just move with the rhythm of the music, her eyes closed, revelling in feeling her girlfriend holding her, occasionally lips or teeth grazing her ear as they danced. “...you’re here…” she sighed, forcing her eyes open and taking hold of Hannah’s hand, lifting it away from where it rested on her stomach and twirling slowly under her arm again so she was facing her again, causing Hannah to laugh at her silly, cross-eyed expression as she spun.

“I’m here…” agreed Hannah, easing Tammy back into a loose embrace as the music’s rhythm shifted again to what was probably, once upon a time before the jazzmen got their way, a stiff waltz, but now was telling her to shuffle and sway and not give a damn about a rigid ‘frame’ shape in their hold..

“Til Monday?” asked Tammy, hopeful but not pressurising Hannah - it was a miracle that they’d only missed a couple of weekends these last few months, but there was something particularly hard about having to watch Hannah pack up and fly back to D.C. on a Sunday afternoon, especially if it was also a weekend Naomi was staying with her.

“Til Monday…” confirmed Hannah, about to say something else when she felt Tammy’s fingers threading through her hair and she was pulled into a deep, wonderful kiss that she eagerly returned, her fingertips trailing down her girlfriend’s spine until they rested on her hips again.

Eventually, after she wasn’t sure how long, their need to breathe took over and reluctantly they both allowed a small space to form between their lips, the only part of their bodies not touching as foreheads touched.

“Why do I feel like we’ve got Sunday plans I’ve forgotten about?” teased Hannah only semi-joking.

“Naomi made me promise not to tell you about making the starting team and now has a match on Sunday.” The new soccer season had seen Naomi encouraged to try out for the next team up, and while she’d been making the match squads which was no small achievement as the youngest in the squad, this would be her first game not on the reserve bench.

It took Hannah a moment to untangle the critical pieces of information from Tammy’s breathless statement...her daughter had made the starting eleven of her soccer team...and if she wasn’t going back to D.C. until Monday’s red eye, she could watch the whole game and be there for the post match pizza ritual...and when she’d pieced it together she kissed Tammy again, her legs and hips proving that they’d rediscovered her inner ‘Nola’ as she continued to move with the rhythms of the third slow song in a row Joe was leading the band through without conscious thought….

* * *

Jimmy returned from serving the other customer, pleased to see these two old ladies, who’d been a regular feature every night for their dinner these last few weeks, were now sitting with their bodies carefully turned towards each other, knees touching, their clasped hands sitting in their laps between them. Seeing them still watching his friends getting reacquainted while they danced, the rest of the people taking a turn on the dancefloor equally lost in their own dances, Jimmy picked up his dishcloth and, as he resumed his drying, resumed his explanation.

“They’re both Agents, work with my brother…” He almost regretted speaking to them, as it drew their attention away from watching the dancing, but he felt it was important they understood how really okay it would be for them to have a try at being their whole truth here, when they were ready. “The taller one, in the white shirt?” He saw them both nod when they realised which of the striking couple he was referring to. “She’s doing something mighty important in D.C. and she gets the late flight back every Thursday evening…” He picked up his next glass, smiling when he saw the beginnings of understanding start to show in their faces.. “...and comes here from the airport. She used to work with them here in the city, her girlfriend still does.” He heard the distinctive ‘ding’ of the service bell from the kitchen and, putting aside his dishcloth, raised his arm and waved to catch Joe’s eye. “Her dinner’s ready, be right back ladies.”


	4. Chapter 4

Out on the dance floor, the dancers all slowed to a stop as the song drew to a close with a long, lyrical fade from Joe’s trumpet as the song’s reunited lovers set off into their future lives. It could have been a sad note to end on, probably was in other bars in other cities, but this was New Orleans and every story had its joyful moments. Still, as the note faded from the trumpet’s bell, the soft rhythm of the drums and bass stilled and, for a brief split second the bar was quiet, no music playing. Then, as reality returned for everyone no matter how far away they’d drifted in their dancing, a ripple of applause for the musicians emerged. Raising his glass in thanks for their appreciation, while also trying to reassure everyone the band were just taking a second to pause for a drink and a breath, not stopping for the night, Joe grinned as he saw Jimmy emerging from the kitchen with a plate and head for Dwayne’s guys.

Joining in the gentle applause, Hannah and Tammy, lips puffy from kissing, eased their way across the corner of the dance floor and back to the table, Hannah’s left hand in Tammy’s while she swept her hair back off her face again with her right. 

“Oh good…” said Loretta, seeing them approaching. “...can you get these two to speak in something I can understand please?” she asked, gesturing to Patton and Sebastian, who were having one of their technobabble discussions that she’d failed to follow some minutes ago. Pride, seeing Jimmy heading to the kitchen, had stepped up behind the bar to serve the sudden influx of thirsty dancers, having given up attempting to even pretend to understand what the two computer specialists were talking about.

“What’s the topic?” asked Tammy as she glared at Sebastian to get him to move up onto the empty chair between him and Patton - she loved him, really she did, but she wasn’t going to sit between him and Patton when she could be sitting next to Hannah.

“My latest software…” began Patton, reaching for his beer so he didn’t laugh as he watched Tammy have to resort to physically pushing the oblivious Sebastian off his chair and in Patton’s direction. “...it’s an algorithmic approach that will reduce how long it takes to....”

“Is it legal?” asked Hannah, sitting down on the chair that was obviously ‘hers’ since it had both a beer and an Old Fashioned in front of it, and another Old Fashioned glass next to it, filled with ice.

“It’s  _ proprietary… _ ” protested Patton just as Tammy’s patience with her best friend’s obliviousness ran out.

“You're my best friend baby, but she’s my girlfriend not yours.”

“Of course, wait, what?” Suddenly all arms and legs, the penny dropped for Sebastian and he scrambled so quickly into the chair on his right that he almost ended up missing it and sitting on Patton.

“And brother you may be man, but get your own chair!” added Patton in good humour, helping Sebastian bounce back into the chair he’d been aiming for, the brakes on his wheelchair the only thing stopping them heading out onto the dance floor together.

“Hey Hannah,” said Jimmy, arriving just in time to unknowingly prevent Sebastian digging himself into a deeper hole. “Flight late tonight?”

“Hey Jimmy.” She quickly snatched up her beer, making it possible for him to put the plate of deliciously smelling food down in front of her, making her realise just how late it must be from how hungry she was. “Fortunately it was late yes, otherwise I’d still be in D.C.” She took a swig of her beer and put it down on the table, accepting the napkin wrapped knife and fork he offered her. “But when I landed I had to go to Belle Chase.”

“Ah, that’s the obvious way to get into the city…” he agreed wryly, that detour explaining her extra late arrival, recognising that whatever it was that had forced her to have to go to the Naval Station must not have been good news, though he had no curiosity for the details. “...but you’re settled in now.” He nodded to her plate. “Crawfish  étouffée, just the way you like it,” he explained, knowing from conversations with her before she’d taken the D.C. job that as much as she loved the food New Orleans was famous for, her years spent working in all sorts of foreign places had given her taste buds a good old work out and made her more than equal to the chef’s favourite way of seasoning the crawfish, which even by Nola standards packed a mighty punch.

“Wonderful Jimmy, thank you.” Unable to ignore her hunger any longer, Hannah began to dig into the generous portion, momentarily ignoring everyone around her, especially when her stomach remembered that lunch had been an apple and a granola bar. 

“You got any ice cream Jimmy?” asked Tammy suddenly, her hand settling on Hannah’s thigh under the table as she reached for her beer with her other hand.

“Sure, you want one?” 

“Not for me, for Hannah, after that.” 

Hannah paused mid bite, looking sideways at her girlfriend, not inclined to say no to an ice cream but not sure why she was having one. Seeing Hannah’s quizzical expression, Tammy blew her a kiss and gave her a pointed look, which told her everything she needed to remember that yes, she definitely wanted an ice cream after this. Finishing her mouthful, she caught Jimmy’s amused gaze and nodded her agreement. “Ice cream would be good, thanks Jimmy.” As she took her next mouthful of her very good dinner, she was certain her cheeks were burning, and knew it wasn’t from the dish’s spicy seasoning.

“What’d I miss?” asked Patton, looking between Tammy and Hannah, then seeing the Doc and Sebastian trying not to make eye contact with each other, apparently able to decipher what was evidently an in joke for his friends. “What’s so funny about the ice cream?”

“Nope.” Sebastian held both his hands up in pre-emptive surrender. “Not saying, she’s scary!”

“Aww, baby…” teased Tammy. “I still scare you?”

“No, I mean…” He put his hands down and looked at his best friend. “Obviously you’re very scary, especially in the morning unless you’ve had coffee, but I was talking about Hannah.”

“Me?” Hannah nearly choked on her latest mouthful when he’d started mentioning Tammy’s morning mood, knowing exactly what he’d meant though she’d not been thinking about coffee as the ticket to improving the grumpy New Yorker’s outlook on the day. “I’m not scary.”

“You’re way scary,” corrected Sebastian, looking to Patton for his backup, who tipped his beer in agreement before taking a swig from it.

“Huh.” Smirking a little at the news that she still had the potential to be ‘way scary’, Hannah caught Loretta’s gaze and nodded her agreement to the unspoken question she saw in the Doctor’s eyes before resuming her focused consumption of her dinner. If the Doc was doing the explanation, the boys’ wouldn’t get much of a chance to wind Tammy up too much.

“Casein.”

“Case what now?”

“Casein,” repeated Loretta, leaning forwards so it was easier for Patton to hear her over the restarted music. “It’s a protein in milk that breaks down the capsaicin bonds that form with the nerve cells when you eat chili. That’s what causes the heat and burn feeling.”

There was a long silence amongst the friends as they waited for Patton to work out, from this new piece of scientific information, quite why it was that Hannah would so readily agree to Tammy’s insistence she eat an ice cream.

“Oh…” He took another pull from his beer. “You can’t handle the heat then New York?”

“I handle the heat just fine thank you very much…” retorted Tammy quickly, making animated gestures in his direction with one hand. Her other hand no longer rested on Hannah’s thigh, but was still trapped under the table, now holding Hannah’s hand since she only needed to use the fork to eat her meal. “...but that ain’t heat, that’s a whole ‘nother level.”

“What’d I miss?” asked Pride, reappearing at this moment.

“Gregorio’s telling us how hot Hannah likes it.”

“Excuse me?” Pride was certain he must have misheard what Patton had just said, though based on the range of looks on his friends faces, maybe he had heard it right.

“My food Dwayne,” said Hannah, gesturing to her plate that still had enough food on it for him to recognise what the kitchen had made for her before she began eating another mouthful.

“You get the spicy version too?” he asked, sitting down in the empty chair that was between Loretta and Patton, recognising the slightly different colour of the sauce, impressed that she’d persuaded the guys in the kitchen she could handle it.

“Mmm,” Hannah swallowed her mouthful, before reminding him. “I spent too long in Korea.”

“What’s Korea got to do with it?” asked Patton, not seeing the connection.

“Extreme heat from spices is a sort of comfort food,” explained Pride, giving Hannah a chance to finish her meal, remembering a conversation he’d had with her not long after she arrived when he’d found her frowning as she ate some gumbo one lunchtime that, in his experience, shouldn’t have made the eater frown. “Talking serious heat, way more than anything we’d do here…”

“It’s insane,” added Tammy, turning to look at her girlfriend. “And you’re insane for being able to eat that stuff.” Tammy liked her food spicy, but the online reviews Hannah had shown her of some of the places she’d eaten at in Korea had been a whole other level of spicy and managed to tame even a New Yorker’s sense of competition. “Uh uh…” She stuck her hand up to keep Hannah at bay, knowing that she wasn’t really at risk of a spicy kiss attack just now, but it was fun and it helped the boys hopefully not think about what might have really happened for them to discover the importance of managing chili transfer….

“How was Belle Chase?” Dwayne’s quiet question helped to reign in the team’s fun enough that Hannah would be able to finish her dinner and Tammy wouldn’t turn bright red from the teasing when the boys finally caught up with the joke.

“Quiet, and quick fortunately,” said Hannah, putting down her fork and taking a sip of her beer as she thought about how to answer what Dwayne was really asking. “I approved my ASAC could give the go on something while I was in the air, but I had to check in on it when I landed.”

“Everything okay?” The two more senior agents could read each other’s real questions and answers - ‘something’ Dwayne knew would be a raid or covert snatch operation somewhere in the Gulf or Indian Ocean, while Hannah knew his ‘okay’ was asking if she was going to be able to sleep tonight.

“Good intel, no casualties…” She drained her beer bottle and decided she really couldn’t eat any more of her dinner, though there really were only a few mouthfuls of rice left now. “...you mind if I take my early meeting with you guys?”

“Sure, go right ahead.” He knew she was really asking if she could monopolise the field office’s secure comms link to take her meeting, saving her having to head out to Belle Chase again. “Roy’ll be glad to see you…” He saw her expression twitch for a split second, making him reconsider her use of the word ‘early’. “...and your entry codes still work.”

“Thanks.”

“Our early or DC early baby?” asked Tammy quietly, knowing the answer would help determine where they were sleeping tonight, though she already had a fairly good idea.

“0600…” Hannah saw Sebastian and Patton’s wince of sympathy and she smiled sadly, knowing the truth was even worse. “...DC time.” She’d tried not to think about it as she’d been driven in from Belle Chase, but 0500 in New Orleans would be late afternoon for the guys in the field and by then they should have finished searching the addresses they’d raided while she’d been in the air. She picked up the glass that had the now partially melted ice cubes in it and drank the melted iced water, leaving what remained of the ice cubes in the glass. Then, in a move that would offend cocktail snobs in many places, she picked up the Old Fashioned Jimmy had left for her and tipped it over the what ice she had left, more than happy to compromise on the ‘perfect’ drink if it meant she stayed in the easy company of her friends and former teammates and didn’t have to go up to the bar for her second drink.

“I’ll bring beignets,” declared Sebastian, deciding the extra forty minutes or so he needed to allow in the morning to get the sweet treats and not be late for work was hardly worth mentioning given what time Hannah would be leaving in the morning, also now knowing she’d be staying at his house with Tammy tonight.

“And I’ve got the coffees.” Patton thought for a moment, trying to remember if the coffee place they were currently favouring offered anything that would work as a treat for Hannah given her preference for anything tea ahead of coffee more often than not.

“Thank you, both of you.”

“You’re drinking coffee now?” asked Loretta, concerned that was suggesting this D.C. role and all the commuting between the two cities was taking too much of a toll on her.

“Nope.” Hannah drank some more of her Old Fashioned, rubbing circles on the back on Tammy’s hand with her thumb, really not that phased by what would be her 4am alarm call - it would have been only half an hour later if she’d still been in D.C. and then….well, she’d be in D.C. and wouldn’t have slept nearly as well. “But they’re going to need it.”

“Hey!” Tammy playfully nudged her in the shoulder, knowing her girlfriend was right. She wasn’t all that great in the mornings at the best of times, and being woken by Hannah’s alarm at whatever time she needed to get up was going to make it a tough morning, but the few hours she would get to sleep with her were so worth it. Being able to go back to sleep after Hannah had gone into the office was a nice theory, but even if Tammy did fall asleep again, it wouldn’t be the same as either sleeping through undisturbed or better yet, being able to sleep through til 7 with Hannah.

“What time’s Naomi’s match on Sunday?” Loretta’s question surprised Hannah and she almost choked on the small sip she’d just taken, only just managing to avoid feeling the burn of the bourbon in her lungs. “You alright my dear?”

“Yes thanks…” Hannah leaned forwards slightly, clearing her throat and coughing a couple of times. “You know about that?” She was delighted with the idea of her daughter being included in their ‘family’ of agents and the Doctor, but looked at Tammy with curiosity - how had Loretta known about it?

“Don’t look at me babe, I wasn’t there.”

“Wasn’t where?”

“The office, on Wednesday?” Pride looked at Sebastian, who nodded that yes, he'd remembered it right.

“Soccer practice is after school on Wednesday.”

“Explains the mud then,” agreed Loretta, recalling the enthusiastic if muddy girl running ahead of the woman she was with, clearly excited about sharing some news with the NCIS agents. “She came by with a woman...” Loretta saw the hard frown on Hannah’s face and quickly glanced at Tammy for a hint.

“Her father’s girlfriend, literature professor, very….” Tammy paused for a moment, trying to think of how to convey all of Hannah’s frustration with the otherwise perfectly pleasant woman her ex-husband was now with. “...brunch in the Hamptons and everything’s fluffy bows ya know?” she asked, her Brooklyn accent thickening as she spoke, unable to think of a suitable Nola equivalent.

“She doesn’t wear fluffy bows…” corrected Hannah resignedly, squeezing her girlfriend’s hand in appreciation of the support. “... she’s pretty decent…” Her sigh, everyone around the table heard as the nearest Hannah would get to verbalising how passive aggressive and difficult Ryan was about their joint parenting agreement. Had he been picking Naomi up after soccer practice, there would have definitely been no detour to the field office to visit her mother’s friends. His girlfriend on the other hand, was apparently a child of divorced parents herself and wasn’t remotely interested in causing conflict between Naomi, her mother and her mother’s girlfriend and colleagues. The agents had become used to Naomi dropping by the office on her way home from school to give Tammy or Sebastian the exciting news she wanted them to help her keep as a surprise for Hannah when she got back from D.C.

“I arrived as they were leaving,” continued Loretta, deciding to not dwell on the woman who, now she thought about it, did perfectly match Tammy’s rather unique description. “And Naomi told me she’d made the soccer team starters for her match on Sunday and invited me.”

“She’d invited us as well,” declared Patton proudly.

“But didn’t tell us where the match was…” added Sebastian, frowning as he recalled the excited girl’s quick visit.

“...or when,” added Patton.

“And these geniuses forgot to ask her…” added Tammy, shooting a despairing but affectionate look in the direction of the two of them. “I was in court,” she reminded Hannah, an earlier case seeing her giving evidence that afternoon and so missing Naomi’s visit completely.

“I thought you were investigators?” Hannah’s eyes sparkled with amusement as she, now she was past the surprise reference to her ex’s perfectly pleasant and ‘safe’ partner, could easily picture Naomi’s excited visit. 

“She’s a child…” began Sebastian, squirming when she raised her eyebrow in his direction - he wasn’t going to do a background search on her..

“ _ Your _ child…” added Patton, equally nervous when she didn’t say anything for a long beat, definitely not going to run any searches or algorithms on Naomi’s cloud accounts when her phone connected to the field office’s wifi network.

“Still super scary babe…” Stage whispered Tammy, grinning gleefully at how easily Hannah’s ‘super-spy’ look could mess with her bestie still.

“You didn’t tell them?”

“They didn’t ask me…” Tammy grabbed her beer and took a long pull on it, her cheeks pinking, knowing Hannah had guessed she had no clue either about the details for the match, not that she minded - it was just so wonderful to have her here, relaxed and open and...she was such a sap but she didn’t care.

“It’s on the school website, I’ll text you when I’ve looked myself Loretta.”

“Excellent.” Clapping her hands together once in satisfaction at another mystery solved, the coroner studied the table top. “My round I think.” As she stood up, Hannah leaned back in her chair and looked at Tammy, her thumb still tracing aimless patterns on the back of her girlfriend’s hand, though they were getting more and more aimless and slower and slower as her long day at the end of a long week started to catch up on her. Tammy didn’t need to be a profiler to read her girlfriend - what energy the dancing and dinner had given her was fading fast.

“Not for us thanks Doc.” She put her empty beer bottle back on the table. “We’re going to head out I think…” She saw Hannah’s sleepy nod and smile, which she acknowledged with a gentle squeeze of her hand before letting go of it, knowing they couldn’t leave until Hannah had gone upstairs to Pride’s and reclaimed her things.

Draining the last of her drink, Hannah stood stiffly and followed Loretta in the direction of the bar where they met Jimmy.

“You want that ice cream now Hannah?”

“Not tonight thanks Jimmy.” Hannah paused at the bar with Loretta, reaching into her pocket and extracting the couple of bills she’d tucked in their before she’d come downstairs. Seeing Jimmy was busy serving another customer, she pressed them into the doctor’s hand. “My share of the tab, can you…”

“Of course.” Loretta had learned from past experience that this wasn’t a debate she would win if she tried to dispute Hannah’s contribution to their evening out. “Get some rest my dear…” She eyed the taller woman with a maternal and medically critical eye, seeing the exhaustion and the determination, but also seeing the peace that came from a life lived with love and support, then pulled her into a warm hug.

“If I’m not down in five minutes I’ve fallen asleep up there…” joked Hannah, returning the hug with genuine affection.

“As comfortable as Dwayne’s furniture looks, I think you’ll manage to hold out…” teased Loretta, looking across the bar and watching Tammy and Sebastian bickering like siblings about something or other. She patted Hannah on her back, encouraging the taller agent to find some energy from somewhere. “...but I promise to send Dwayne up if you disappear on us.”

“Dwayne?” Hannah hadn’t expected him to be the nominated search party and she pulled back from the hug, only to see the mischievous look on the Doctor’s face, causing her cheeks to colour at how easily she’d been played.

”Scoot.” Loretta gestured for Hannah to go ahead and get her things, knowing the agent really was running on fumes, watching with a satisfied smile on her face as Hannah easily slipped through the now crowded bar and headed up to Dwayne’s space to collect her things.


	5. Chapter 5

“Come home quiet yeah?”

“I’m always quiet!” protested Sebastian instinctively, before looking up at his best friend and seeing how serious her expression was. Realising what she actually wanted him to acknowledge he’d made the connection between Hannah’s extra early meeting and which bed she’d be getting what little sleep she could get in, he nodded more seriously. “Yes, I’ll be extra quiet.” 

Usually, when her flight wasn’t delayed and her Friday contained no super early meetings, Hannah and Tammy left with the rest of them and took a cab to Hannah’s house, the two of them coming into the field office the following morning in Hannah’s car which she still had at her house. However sometimes, when the flight was late or there was something happening in the Quarter that made cabs hard to come by, Hannah would stay with Tammy on the Thursday night, since it was in walking distance of the bar. The exception to these rules Sebastian knew, was when something changed in the agreement Hannah had with Ryan about Naomi - on the odd weekend when Hannah didn’t have Naomi, he knew Hannah’s house stayed locked up and Hannah stayed with Tammy at Sebastian’s house, her daughter’s absence hard to cope with even with Tammy’s support.

“You’re the best baby.” Tammy looked up from her best friend as her girlfriend reappeared and her face transformed into a bright smile as she moved around the table to meet Hannah halfway. “Set?”

“Ye...ah.” Hannah’s attempt at suppressing her yawn was only partially successful, so she inwardly admitted defeat and waved at Sebastian and Patton, having said good night to Dwayne as she passed him by the bar, where he was being introduced to an older couple of ladies by his brother, a story no doubt she’d hear eventually from the others.

“Later guys.”

“Man, she looks beat,” said Patton, repositioning his chair so they could space out around the table more evenly again after Hannah and Tammy’s departure. “All that flying can’t be good for her.”

“You want her to stay in D.C. more?”

“What? No! Did I say that?” Upset with his friend’s challenge, Patton shook his head and tried again. “What I meant was, I hope she gets to come back to us properly soon.”

“So do I…” agreed Sebastian, tidying up the bottles and glasses so there was space for the fresh round of drinks and to make it easier to put everything they didn’t need on the tray. “...but I don’t see how that’ll happen…” He caught Patton’s look and continued before the other man could interrupt him. “...not to the field office I mean, Belle Chase maybe.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Patton, helping him clear space for the tray the Doc was now carrying over. Although he was aware of the rank hierarchies within NCIS, being an independent advisor rather than an agent, he didn’t keep track of all the nuances and bureaucratic politics that affected team leaders like Pride and Hannah.

“You do realise she’s technically more senior than Pride right?”

* * *

  
  


“Can you text Pride for me please?”

“Sure…” Tammy had a free hand to pull her phone out of her pocket, her left arm tucked inside Hannah’s raincoat, wrapped around her waist. Hannah meanwhile, had her right arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders, and was carrying her briefcase in her left hand, leaving no hand free to send a text. “...whadya need me to say?”

“I owe him some milk.”

It was fortunate that the pedestrians in this part of the City didn’t move all that speedily, otherwise there could have been some bruises and collisions when Tammy forgot to walk, surprised by the sleepy request.

“Milk?” She frowned, looking at Hannah for a hint. “Is that a code or something?”

“No.” Hannah kissed Tammy’s forehead in reassurance then set off walking again, glad they were nearly ‘home’ at the house Tammy shared with Sebastian. “I helped myself to a glass of milk when I grabbed my bag from his place.” They arrived at the kerb just in time to have priority, so she didn’t immediately continue until after they were back on the pavement again, only now it was a little quieter so they could walk a little more easily. “Since I didn’t get an ice cream.”

They walked along in comfortable, companionable silence as Tammy texted, trusting Hannah to gently steer her around any obstacles they might encounter during this final block. She then, while she remembered, looked up Naomi’s school website and after a couple of false starts, found the details of the soccer match. Taking a screenshot of the details, she sent that to the Doc.

“I’ll get a fresh carton on my way in…” She looked up as she put her phone away, recognising that they were only a few more steps from their destination. “...and sent Loretta the match details from the school site. It’s an away game at one of the other schools in the city somewhere...”

“Thanks.” It hadn’t occurred to Hannah it might not be a home game, but at least Naomi wasn’t yet playing in any state level games - while maternal pride would enjoy her success, Hannah was self aware enough to know that she’d struggle to muster the same enthusiasm if the match had been out of the city. “Thank goodness she’s not made State.”

“Not yet baby…” Tammy reluctantly untangled herself from Hannah so she could find her keys, “...but she will.” She’d finally, after much careful coaxing and a few threats to ask Patton to do a search for the details, got her girlfriend to admit to being an All-State Champion soccer player, though photographic evidence was still proving somewhat elusive. “She can do anything except be a cheerleader,” agreed Tammy, reaching up and carefully lifting an errant strand of hair out of Hannah’s eyes and then running her fingers down her cheek. “They’re the mean girls, and Naomi ain’t mean.”

“Weren’t you a cheerleader?” teased Hannah, leaning against the side of the house while she waited for Tammy to unlock the door.

“Which is why I know they’re the mean girls, and it was less than a month.”

“Uh huh…” Hannah leaned into Tammy’s hand, kissing the inside of her wrist. “...my girlfriend was a cheerleader…”

“That must make you the jock then baby…” breathed Tammy, forgetting about unlocking the front door and instead leaning into Hannah and capturing her lips in a heated kiss. It was only when Hannah was reminded she was still holding her briefcase when it affected her ability to pull Tammy even closer to her that she found the discipline to ease back from the kiss. 

"If we're not careful Sebastian will be back before we're inside." While it wouldn't be the first time they'd rather failed to get beyond the quiet porch having left the bar ahead of Sebastian, Hannah was becoming all too aware of how little time she had before she was needing to be awake, alert and professional via secure video link with at least twenty people from multiple agencies and branches of the military. 

She didn't care that some of the D.C career agents struggled to adjust to her wearing two colours simultaneously not counting black or white or worse, an actual pattern, nor when the inevitable sounds of jazz could be heard in the background if they rang her cell, but she did want to at least have had a couple of hours of sleep first. Plus, if she was going to sacrifice sleep for kisses like that, she didn't want to be wearing her gun still and holding her briefcase instead of Tammy. 

Grinning at the truth in Hannah’s statement, Tammy dutifully focused on unlocking the door.

“You want some tea?” 

“I…” Hannah put her briefcase down on a convenient chair and stretched her arm out as she thought about the question. “...no thanks.” She struggled to contain another yawn, causing Tammy to look at her with concern - there was tired and there was exhausted, and Tammy was starting to think her girlfriend was wasting too much energy trying to pretend she wasn’t exhausted.

“Go shower,” encouraged Tammy, knowing that Hannah had a preference for not bringing the grime of her flight to bed, plus it would make the early start in the morning slightly less awful. 

“Love you…” Kissing Tammy’s lips briefly, she was frustrated that she was too tired to even try and coax soft lips to part in a deeper kiss, but turned and headed upstairs with the hope that a shower would wake her up just a little.

“Back at ya baby…” whispered Tammy, watching with loving concern as Hannah carefully headed upstairs to Tammy’s room, where she’d be able to hang up her ‘D.C’ clothes and forget about them until Monday’s red eye, Tammy made no attempt to pretend she wasn’t savouring the sight of her girlfriend in ‘D.C. mode’, something she’d sworn she’d never fall for ever again after her last relationship with the _other_ Hannah. And, in many ways, she’d kept her promise - she’d fallen for Hannah Khoury a long way from D.C. - when she thought about her, Tammy’s mind was filled with memories of the NCIS emblazoned ball cap or windbreaker, two garments that on everyone else they were just essential workwear that never really fitted and left you feeling like you were playing dress up with someone else’s clothes, yet on Hannah...how she managed to look elegant and scary-secret-agent-for-the-good-guys-that-was-totally-hot Tammy still didn’t understand, especially given she knew for a fact there was nothing ‘special’ about Hannah’s cap or jacket, as she had the same effect on Tammy’s heartbeat when she wore Tammy’s by mistake.

“Holy crap, she said she loves me.”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


PIcking up her discarded shirt to take back to the bedroom, Hannah checked the towel she’d wrapped her wet hair in was still secure then left the bathroom. The hot shower had helped her wake up enough to be able to go to sleep properly and get some half decent rest. It had also given her a few moments of clear thinking to neatly organise her thoughts ahead of the meeting in the morning, meaning she could put all thoughts of work aside...well, almost all NCIS related thoughts aside, but then she’d stopped thinking about Tammy in solely a work context some time ago, right about the time she’d realised she was feeling more than just a one-time team leader’s sense of responsibility for a fellow agent. DIscovering it was a mutual development and then doing something about it had taken her massively out of her comfort zone initially, but definitely worth it, even if it meant she was well on her way to being a frequent flyer miles millionaire...that part she didn’t love much, but she was enjoying the task force assignment and loving Tammy.

Loving Tammy.

Shaking her head at how soppy she was sounding to herself, Hannah pushed the ajar bedroom door open enough to slip through it and closed it behind her.

“Hey…” She leaned against the door, realising she’d managed to surprise Tammy with her return, her bare feet not making any noise on the landing.

“Mmph…” Tammy’s head popped through the neck opening in a well worn t-shirt. “...hey.” She sat down on the corner of the bed and worked her hair through the neck of the shirt so it was hanging down her back, her lower lip caught between her teeth despite her broad smile.

“What?” Hannah reached up and touched her face, wondering what was causing her girlfriend’s expression. “Have I got toothpaste…?”

“Oh baby…” Tammy’s smile got broader as she stood up and went over to Hannah, who was apparently quite content to stay stood against the bedroom door, though Tammy wasn’t sure if her girlfriend was leaning against the door to keep it closed or stay on her feet. “...in that outfit I wasn’t looking at your lips…”

“Wha…” Hannah chuckled, realising what Tammy meant. “...honestly…” she flushed under the open admiration Tammy was giving her, the towel wrapped around her ribs that covered her to mid thigh helping provide her girlfriend with plenty to admire besides her face.

“Beautiful.” 

Tammy stopped just short of an arm’s length away from Hannah - near enough that she could reach out and trace the strong lines of her girlfriend’s neck and shoulders in the air just millimetres from her body, but far enough away that she could just drink in the sight...the off-white gloss paint of the door and the cream of the towels providing just the right contrast to her girlfriend’s natural colour in the soft light of the bedroom. 

Willowy.

She’d kept coming across that word in reference to women and never understood how calling a woman like a type of tree was supposed to be kind….and then she’d kissed her way down long, slender arms and up even longer legs that went on forever and wrapped around her and she got it. Slender but strong, lithe but firm, beauty and grace..

“You said you love me…” she breathed, inching closer, wondering what Hannah’s reaction would be.

“I did.” Hannah had been tired but not so tired to not remember. She reached out, catching her fingers in the hem of the t-shirt Tammy was wearing. “I do...” She looked thoughtful, wondering why this was suddenly seeming like news for her girlfriend, certain she’d said it before, but maybe...

“I love you too baby…” Tammy’s broad smile as she said those words to Hannah for the first time faltered when she registered the thoughtful look turn to a frown. “...okay, not what I was expecting.” She stayed still, looking at Hannah with a raised eyebrow, wordlessly questioning what was happening but, in what would have been considered atypical behaviour by her friends perhaps, not flying off the handle...yet.

“Mmm?” Seeing Tammy’s look, Hannah shook herself from her still rather sleepy thoughts and her face transformed into a shy smile. “You’ve never said that before…” she began, thinking that this was a slightly strange moment for it to come up for the first time from Tammy.

“I was waiting for you.” It was Tammy’s turn to colour, her usual confidence completely deserting her. “I...didn’t want to pressure you, with the task force, Na…”

“Tu mana doost biyeh.”

“Tu what now?” The sass was back, part defensive instinct and part energised by fragments of a puzzle coming together that she hadn’t realised she held. There was something about the way Hannah said those words, the warmth in her eyes as she near whispered them that sounded familiar to Tammy. “Wait, you’ve said that before…” She caught her lip as she tried to remember, before blushing brightly. “...when I was sick…” That hadn’t been her finest moment when, a couple of hours after Hannah had arrived her third weekend visit into the new job, Tammy had suddenly discovered her rolling stomach wasn’t girlfriend-related butterflies but the stomach bug that had been going around the week before.

“Uh huh…” Hannah, despite her sleepiness, was feeling the same energised she felt when a case just clicked together, realising what had happened. “Seni seviyorum.” She gathered the t-shirt fabric in her fist and gently tugged to persuade Tammy to come closer. “Seni seviyorum,” she said again, more slowly, watching to see if any recognition flashed in golden brown eyes. “Sebastian’s birthday?” 

“What language is that?” asked Tammy, starting to have a pretty good idea what it must mean.

“Turkish.” Hannah laughed despite everything, finding her girlfriend’s speechless expression amusing. “What? I’d had a few too many drinks…”

“But Turkish?” Tammy shook her head. “You speak Turkish when you’re drunk?”

“Think in Turkish...” admitted Hannah quietly, becoming a bit more serious as she let go of the t-shirt and reached for Tammy’s hand. “...self-preservation, I speak in the language I’m thinking in…” 

“Undercover?” Tammy could appreciate that, she’d certainly done enough undercover work to know how important it was to have techniques for staying ‘in character’ even when things went sideways, but she’d not had to do it in a different language.

“Yes. Why I don’t drink raki by choice…”

“And the other one? Tu…” Tammy had inched closer again, just a couple of centimetres between them now.

“Tu mana doost biyeh.” Hannah tucked a stray strand of Tammy’s hair behind her ear. “Balochi...form of Arabic common in Oman.”

“And they both mean…”

“I love you.”

If life was a movie, the towel that magically dropped as their lips touched would have been the one wrapped around Hannah’s ribs. But life isn’t a movie and, as their lips touched, they were both plunged into a tangled darkness as the twist that kept the towel wrapped around Hannah’s hair balanced on top of her head untwisted and fell onto Tammy’s head.

“Way to spoil the moment…” grumbled Tammy, dragging the damp towel off her head and seeing a rather bedraggled looking Hannah. “...aw baby…” She reached out and parted the limp, still damp strands of dark hair that had fallen onto her girlfriend’s face, then kissed the tip of her nose.

“I should probably…” Hannah gestured to her hair, a yawn surprising her again as, now the mood was broken, reality was returning rather abruptly again.

“Brush is on the dresser…” Tammy stepped back so Hannah could move away from the door, but not before enjoying another slow, lingering admiring look at her. “Beautiful…” she breathed before, seeing the tired smile start to be interrupted by another yawn, consciously shifting her thoughts very firmly back to entirely mundane and not remotely sexy times thoughts. “You want this still?”

“Hmm? Oh…” Ordinarily Hannah would give her hair another rub with the towel before she gave in and either used the hairdryer or committed one of her mother’s ultimate sins and went to bed with wet hair. Running her fingers through the damp strands and feeling the lack of dripping wetness, she shook her hair. “...thanks, I’m good.”

“Alrighty, back in a tick.” And, with a wink and a playful blown kiss, Tammy waited for Hannah to move away from the door so she could head to the bathroom.

“Tam?” Despite everything, Hannah’s brain couldn’t stop finding and solving puzzles.

“Hmm?”

“Your shirt…”

“What about it?”

“Inside out _and_ back to front?” 


	6. Chapter 6

“Nnnoo…” Tammy tried to roll over and smack the noisy alarm off, but it was already silent. “Mmm…” Still half asleep, she tried to snuggle back into the warmth and softness that was surrounding her, only it wasn’t the same. “Wa…” Slightly less asleep but still not awake, she started shuffling across the mattress, instinctively trying to move back into the perfect spot that was no longer there.

“Go back to sleep Tam…” whispered Hannah, leaning over the bed as she fastened her bra clasp.

“Mmm...k....” Reacting to Hannah’s voice, Tammy seemed to at least stop her attempts to excavate her way into the middle of the mattress. Recently gained experience told Hannah that her limpet mine of a girlfriend would start trying to find her again in a moment, but that was all Hannah needed to put on the rest of her underwear and the jeans she’d left out to pull on the night before.

Sure enough, just as she was doing up her jeans, Tammy set off on her sleeping shuffle across the bed again, instinctively trying to find the perfect spot again.

“Oh Tam…” sighed Hannah with affection, glad that she was a sufficiently quick dresser and enough of a morning person that she could combine an early start with, depending on the circumstances, either a half asleep clingy daughter or a half asleep affectionate girlfriend causing a minute or two’s delay. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she leaned over and brushed the almost too long fringe off her girlfriend’s forehead, her touch bringing Tammy fully awake.

“Mm...a..hey…” Blinking to adjust to the soft light coming from the light over in the corner of the room, Tammy’s gaze locked onto Hannah’s. “Already?” She frowned slightly as she ran her tongue round her teeth, trying to overcome the post-sleep dry mouth feeling, every fibre of her body telling her it was too early to be awake, that she’d only just got to sleep a few minutes earlier.

“For me yes.” Hannah finished fastening her watch strap, its face confirming what the alarm clock had already told her - she woke up on the first sound and hit the snooze button before Tammy noticed it, then got out of bed. By the time the snooze function kicked in and sounded the alarm again it was 0406 and she was half dressed. She leaned in and captured soft lips with hers, resisting the urge to tangle her fingers in sleep-tussled hair and instead braced herself with her hands on the mattress. As she felt the warmth of her girlfriend’s hand land on the bare skin of her lower back, she let out an involuntary moan, the touch triggering a cascade of memories from just a few hours earlier when they’d tumbled into bed together, exhaustion chased away by passion. 

Their good intentions of going to bed, to sleep, earlier than they might have ordinarily done had been disregarded....and at some point today Hannah knew she might regret it perhaps for a moment when the lack of sleep became a serious problem, but not yet. And even if it did, she knew she’d blame it on the few minutes she lost from taking a second shower before she finally went to sleep, rather than the events that made a second shower a professional necessity. 

When she felt Tammy's other hand come up and gently cup her breast through the fabric of her bra, the gentle friction caused by the plain functional cotton against her nipple caused her to gasp, breaking their kiss. “Tam…” she sighed, her arms betraying her attempt to sound detached and like a Federal Agent about to go to work as they shook, unequal to the task of holding her up under the delicate onslaught of her girlfriend’s lips along her neck as hands caressed her body.

“One more minute baby…” whispered Tammy, working her lips along strong jaw lines until she could graze an earlobe with her teeth, then soothe with soft lips.

“Mmkay…” Deep in the depths of Hannah’s rational brain, she knew that the ever insistent snooze function would go off again in a minute, which they both, deep down knew meant she really would have to finish getting dressed and head off out. But until that moment she had a girlfriend to kiss again. “...c’mere…” she murmured, trying to move away from far too accurate lips and gentle teeth so she could capture those lips again with her own.

“Aww…” In the split second it took for Hannah, once she’d successfully moved out of range of Tammy’s soft lips and gentle teeth, to recapture them with her own lips, Tammy had begun to pout at being deprived the opportunity to lavish affection on Hannah’s neck, only for the pout to quickly turn into a smile when she caught up with what was happening. “...mmm…” 

And then the inevitable happened.

“Fuck.” Hannah tore herself away from her girlfriend’s lips, the insistent sound of the alarm intruding in a way that she couldn’t ignore. She loved her job in general (sexist chauvinistic Deputy Directors aside), and this particular task force in particular, but for a split second the idea of tumbling back onto the pillow for a few more hours wrapped up with the woman she loved was very, very tempting.

“We already did that baby…” teased Tammy, knowing that right now, being a good girlfriend meant keeping her hands and lips to herself, though that didn’t stop her feasting on the visual sight. “Nice bra.”

“Huh?” Hannah sat down on the edge of the bed and looked down at her underwear selection for the day and groaned: it was the epitome of single woman functional, plain cotton, chosen for comfort and practicality without any expectation anyone would ever see it. “So much for seduction.”

“I was being serious.” Tammy, properly awake now, was acutely aware that they only had a minute or so, but also saw she’d accidentally touched a nerve. “It looks comfortable.” She rolled slightly and moved the bedclothes so Hannah could see a faint pock-mark scar on the side of her breast. “Rookie mistake - underwire and kevlar.”

“Ouch.” Hannah winced in sympathy, reaching out and stroking the blemish she’d not yet committed to memory with her thumb. “But hardly romantic,” she added, gesturing to her own chest again.

“Says the woman who flies a thousand miles each week.” Tammy tapped Hannah on the tip of her nose, a gesture that always seemed to make her smile. “That’s plenty romantic,” she grinned, trailing her finger down, tracing over Hannah’s jaw and down her neck.

“I love you.” Hannah leaned forwards, knowing she really had to finish getting ready for work but not wanting to leave without mentioning it. “I…” She brushed a kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead. “Love…” And her nose. “You.” Fleetingly, she touched her lips to Tammy’s then stood up. With the same willpower that saw her manage not to lose it during the most infuriating of interrogations, she crossed the bedroom to the chair where she’d left out a clean shirt and began putting it on, looking over her shoulder at Tammy, sprawled out across the bed, bare shoulders, arms and one leg sticking out from under the bedclothes, her memories helpfully reminding Hannah what was just out of view.

“I love you too,” confirmed Tammy, watching with amazement as she always did at how her Hannah-her-girlfriend morphed into Hannah-the-super-scary-special-agent with the barest of touches of make up before fixing her handcuffs and holster in the small of her back. By the time she turned back to look at Tammy, Hannah’s badge was on her belt after a now reflex second check it was hers and not Tammy’s - fortunately that had only happened once and Tammy had been with Pride and Sebastian at a new crime scene learning about their victim from Loretta when she’d flashed her credentials and discovered she’d received a few promotions and one hell of a makeover. One quick text to Hannah and she’d driven out to the scene from the field office and wordlessly exchanged badges.

“Get some more sleep Tam…” encouraged Hannah, heading to the wardrobe and pulling out the leather jacket she kept there, ignoring the dark suit she’d worn yesterday in D.C.

“Mmm...you look good.” WIthout the physical presence of Hannah to distract her, Tammy was already starting to become sleepy again.

“So do you…” teased Hannah, drinking in the sight of her once again half-asleep girlfriend sprawled out across the bed. “...Sleep well…” she whispered, as she went back to the bed and picked up her cellphone from the bedside table.

“Mmm…” Tammy was almost asleep again. “...dream of you.”

Shaking her head at the silly sappiness of her girlfriend, so unlike the ‘tough New Yorker’ she projected at times at work, she turned out the light in the corner of the room, knowing the darkness would guarantee her girlfriend going back to sleep and slipped out of the bedroom to finish getting ready for work.

Special Agent-in-Charge Khoury was ready for work.


	7. Chapter 7

“Well?”

“No go,” sighed Pride as he put his cell phone back in his pocket.

“No go refused or no go…” Patton wasn’t sure if he wanted to guess what the latest reason was going to be. “...can’t find him?”

“Can’t find him,” confirmed Pride, putting the file he’d been holding while he made the call back on his desk.

“Which we know is code for playing golf,” sighed Sebastian, tossing his pen on his desk, wondering what they did now.

“So what do we do now?” asked Tammy, coming out from behind her desk clutching her coffee mug. “He’s gonna disappear on us again if we wait til whenever Whitton will see you.” As much as she didn’t want to lose their suspect now they’d finally found him again, she wasn’t a fan of spending all weekend in the surveillance van, nor did she like their odds of trying to arrest him on their own.

“Why do you need to see Whitton?” asked Hannah, coming through from the kitchen, recognising the name of the Belle Chase based SAC. “And are there any beignets left?”

“On your desk…” said Sebastian, nodding to the box she could see once Pride stepped to his left.

“Thank you.” Hannah looked at the screens as she headed over to the desk Pride had insisted she keep despite her current assignment. As far as he was concerned she was only temporarily gone from the field office and it gave her somewhere to work on a Friday if she didn’t want to go to Belle Chase. “Suspect?” she asked, tilting her head towards the screens to make it clear who she was talking about. “Wasn’t he the stores supervisor…?”

“Yes.” Pride picked up the file again and passed it to her to look at, knowing she’d recognise elements of the case against the guy as she’d still been with the team when it had started, back when it had been suspected theft from Navy Stores. “But now it’s a little more complicated.”

They all could see in her expression the moment she got to the ‘complicated’ part of the case in the draft charge sheet.

“Is he a genius or an idiot?” Seeing how he’d been managing to siphon a wide range of Navy stores off the Bases he oversaw, he had to be a genius. Setting up two different, rival organised crime leads to buy the same crate of weapons and ammo? Idiot surely.

“A little of both probably,” admitted Pride, inwardly still a bit frustrated that they hadn’t been able to get the guy before the complications had started multiplying.

“Plan for genius but hope for idiot,” said Patton, surprised at how closely Hannah seemed to be reading the file they’d put together, not least because she’d only taken one bite of her beignet. “Not that it matters now.”

“Because Whitton won’t see you?” She’d got to the final part of the file now, which at least told her why they needed to see SAC Whitton rather than just continuing to organise the surveillance op that would hopefully culminate in some good arrests. As Dwayne had said, Billy Sorporlt was either a genius or an idiot, and her gut was telling her the only idiotic thing Sorporlt had done was let his less than genius half-brother do the Base collection unsupervised once, which seemed to be the opportunity Patton had needed to track his cell phone. That in turn also suggested that having these two rival crime gang leads attend the same buy was perhaps no accident, and the cinematic ‘mutually assured destruction’ plot where the two bad guys take each other out was perhaps a real part of his plan.

“He plays golf with his buddies on Fridays...” said Sebastian when it was clear Pride wasn’t immediately going to answer her.

“...and Saturdays,” added Patton, opening up the webpage for the club and putting it on the main screen so Hannah could see. “Spends more time there than Belle Chase.” 

“Huh.” Hannah put down the file and resumed eating her beignet.

“What?”

“Hmm?” Mid chew, Hannah looked at Tammy, not sure what her question really meant.

“I know that look, you’ve got questions.”

“Sorry, force of habit.” Hannah swallowed the last bit of the beignet, feeling much better for some food. “...it’s not my case or place.” She looked from Tammy to Pride, wanting to gauge his reaction to her interest, acutely aware she wasn’t on the team, and this wasn’t her case.

“Ask away,” encouraged Pride, curious to know what her questions were, not overly territorial at when it came to agents he respected and trusted.

“Is it personal? Whitton not seeing you I mean, or does he just not get it?”

“It’s not personal.” That had been an early thought of Dwayne’s as well, when the new SAC had arrived and been somewhat hard to pin down and work with. “He’s just…”

“...an administrator not an agent?” suggested Hannah when Dwayne didn’t seem inclined to finish his sentence.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I made a few calls when he was given the job.” She’d wanted to know that they were, if not in good hands exactly with their new SAC, at least not having to work for a known liability. Tim ‘nice but dim’ Whitton was by all accounts more of a bureaucrat than an agent, with only a year to go until his retirement with full benefits and a genial attitude to the world that often came off second best to his love of playing golf or fishing. The same review and reset actions that had seen Hannah get her task force lead and several other not-white-straight-male Agents get overdue promotions, commendations and pay rises also triggered a redistribution of some of the over-promoted-borderline-hopeless-white-straight-males (because of course, demotion wasn’t ever going to be an option for _them_ ). Whitton, it seemed, was New Orleans’ price to pay for Pride refusing to leave the field and having one of the most diverse investigative teams in NCIS. It was frustrating that the Whittons of this world were still in the Agency, but ‘nice but dim’ was the lesser of two evils in a world that still contained a fair few Van Cleefs.

“He doesn’t see why we can’t send all our case approvals to him once a week for him to sign like our expenses claims,” explained Sebastian, still unable to fathom how someone could be appointed SAC without understanding that crimes generally happened on their own timetables.

“You submit your expenses claims like that?”

“Well no, of course not…” Hannah was glad she’d started her second beignet, as it gave her something to hide her smile behind at Sebastian’s answer, glad to have it confirmed that the paperwork nightmares they’d given her when she was team lead was, as she’d guessed at the time, nothing personal. “But that’s because we’re us, whereas his rules...suck.”

“Suck?” She was certain that if Tammy had been providing this part of the explanation that wouldn’t have been the word she’d have chosen, but decided not to wait for him to dig himself in a bigger hole. “When would he sign it then?” From what she’d heard about the man, both from Tammy’s frustrated venting over the last few weeks and on various grapevines, he wouldn’t understand enough about the team’s request to query it or even think of not signing it.

“Wednesday.” Everything they knew suggested the drugs were moving on Tuesday, so not even starting to put the surveillance in place until the day after the drugs (currency of choice for organised crime head customer number one) had already gone was clearly not going to help.

“Ah.” Hannah put her half eaten beignet down on a piece of scrap paper and closed the file with her hand that wasn’t sticky with sugar.

“That wasn’t your real question…” said Pride thoughtfully, knowing she could have asked about their relationship with SAC Whitton without checking herself first.

“No…” She stood up, offering the file back to Pride as she felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket, reminding her she’d not turned the ringer back on after she’d finished her team debrief that had generated too many of the wrong sort of questions for her to have a quiet Friday. “If it were me I’d want to know more about the aircraft hanger part of the plan.”

“Yes, but…” Pride valued her opinion but wasn’t seeing the significance of her interest in the aircraft hanger, which they’d currently not planned to include in the list of places they needed to have simultaneously surveilled and then raided as nothing in their intel suggested Billy was thinking about fleeing the region or had the means to organise such a plan, even as a backup.

“I need to take this…” She held up her phone, seeing it was her ASAC calling with what she hoped was good news but based on how quickly he was calling her back after the end of the main meeting, probably wasn’t going to be great. “...sorry.” As an afterthought she grabbed what was left of her beignet and headed towards the courtyard, sending what she hoped was a reassuring ‘I’m on your side’ smile to her girlfriend as she answered her phone. “Tom, hi, what did you find out?”

* * *

  
  


“What does she mean, plan for the aircraft hanger?” asked Patton of the room in general, before turning to look at Tammy, who was obviously their expert ‘Hannah translator. “There is no plan for the aircraft hanger!”

“Don’t look at me,” said Tammy, putting her coffee mug down and moving towards Pride so she could look at the screens without twisting her neck so much, pleased when Patton, despite his confusion, switched them over so they could look at the aerial photo of the aircraft hanger Hannah was interested in. “But it’s Hannah guys, she’s on our side.”

“She’s more than that…” began Sebastian, typing on his keyboard, looking for confirmation of a half formed thought he had, so missed his best friend’s ‘well d’uh’ look sent in his direction. “We need a plan for the aircraft hanger!” 

“Why?” Pride looked at the suddenly animated tall agent who, in a flurry of arms and legs, scrambled out from behind his desk and came over to them, snatching up the screen remote and switching them over to show what he’d just found on his desk computer.

“We need a signed 20-023 right?” said Sebastian excitedly, bringing up on screen the blank form template they were now all too familiar with despite it only existing for a couple of months. 

“And Whitton won’t sign it.” Tammy’s love for her best friend was the only thing that kept her from saying something snappy about finding the point. “So we’re stuck.” Form 20-023 was increasingly becoming the bane of their existence, with it being a new necessity for any NCIS operation involving multi-agency cooperation in more than one state, a frequent occurrence given their Gulf location. It had been brought in because of some screw ups made by other field offices, and while it did provide some important and necessary oversight and added scrutiny for the teams that would otherwise earn NCIS a bad name in the inter-agency reputation battles, that hadn’t been something the New Orleans field office had ever struggled with. Moreover, they were now lumbered with an SAC who was not exactly field agent friendly, adding insult to upset dignity. But now, there was no way around it - before they could start to organise the multi-site simultaneous raids that would need to involve several agencies, New Orleans police and State Sheriffs in Louisiana and Alabama, they needed the 20-023 signed.

“It doesn’t have to be Whitton.”

“What do you mean Sebastian?” asked Pride, not liking the idea of going above Whitton’s head as he knew he was not flavour of the month with Van Cleef’s replacement.

“Here…” Sebastian showed an enlargement of the ‘authorising signature’. “...there’s a footnote.” He clicked to show them another screen. “..which says blah de blah blah...any NCIS Special Agent-in-Charge or senior may authorise any inter-agency cross-state operation after adequate review.” He waited a beat, expecting everyone to have already started talking, before realising he hadn’t been clear enough. “Hannah’s telling us that we don’t need Whitton.”

“If it were me I’d want to…” muttered Patton, tapping away at his tablet screen on his wheelchair mount, pulling up the bit of the case file that explained how they knew about the aircraft hanger, looking up when everyone stared at him. “That’s what she said, ‘if it were me I’d want to know more about…”

“The aircraft hanger part of the plan,” agreed Pride, opening up the file again and looking at it briefing, checking it hadn’t suddenly morphed into something different in the last few moments. “But there is no plan, he’s…”

“That’s her point Pride,” said Tammy, suddenly fully energised as all the pieces of the puzzle came together for her. “Just because we know how he did the last exchange, _before_ he rented that hanger, how do we know that he won’t do something with it now? He’s a sneaky son-of-a that has been methodical and efficient with everything he does…” She shuffled the bits of the puzzle around in her mind, wondering what else she was missing. “...that plane that keeps flying from there, where’d it go again?”

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


“Didn’t mean to interrupt…” apologised Tammy, holding her girlfriend’s blue mug out for her to take, seeing her putting her cell in her pocket.

“You didn’t.” Hannah took the mug, smiling when their fingers brushed as the mug was passed between them, glad they didn’t have to try and stutter and hide their involuntary smiles. “Thank you.” She turned the mug round so the string from the tea bag was hanging out over the side away from her. “And good morning.” She took a sip of the too hot tea and shifted along the edge of the table, leaving enough space for Tammy to lean against if she wanted to. “Again.”

“Hey.” Tammy knew she was probably grinning like a goofy kid, but she was still needing to pinch herself when she thought about the surprise discovery last night that her girlfriend had been telling her she loved her for weeks already.

“What?” Hannah ran her tongue over her top lip, self-consciousness making her wonder if she’d got sugar on her nose or something.

“Nothing.” Tammy moved and joined Hannah in leaning on the edge of the table, its small size meaning they were sat with shoulders and hips touching, their hands occupied with holding their mugs. “How you doing?” She knew better than to make a direct reference to how little sleep Hannah had been able to get, or ask specifically about the taskforce.

“Not great.” WIth her team in DC she’d put up the ‘cool and collected’ front, probably still do so if it were Patton or Sebastian, but both Dwayne and Tammy would see through her, though Pride would be too respectful to ask any follow-ups. And she didn’t want to pretend with Tammy.

“Anything I can do to help?” Tammy mirrored her girlfriend's natural thinking pose of the arm not holding her mug wrapping across her front, hand resting against her ribs. A moment later she was smiling when she felt long fingers tangle in hers when their hands brushed, the discrete opportunity to anchor herself with Tammy taken immediately. 

"You're already doing it." Hannah took another sip of her tea, her thumb tracing gentle circles on Tammy’s hand, enjoying the opportunity to take a moment and let her shoulders relax and her jaw unclench. “How’s your case?”

“Pride’s calling a contact in the DEA.”

“Oh?” That was a new development she'd not been expecting. 

“Yeah, see this super sexy sometimes scary very special agent asked a really brilliant question about an aircraft hanger and we looked at the aircraft that regularly used the airfield again.”

“And?” Hannah was grinning in spite of everything else that she was having to now juggle in her own case, finding Tammy’s explanation amusing, even if she would dispute the description of herself.

“We think Sorpolt’s plan might be to flip his drugs payment straight onto this guy from Detroit.” From an NCIS perspective, the fact that the drugs were payment for stolen Naval Stores meant they were happy to arrest Sorporlt while he still had the drugs, but the guy who’d just started flying in from a little airstrip outside Detroit seemed to be of long term interest to the DEA.

“So now there’s a plan for the aircraft hanger?” asked Hannah, amused at how the New Orleans case had developed off the back of her mostly rhetorical question.

“Not yet, but there will be.” Tammy gave Hannah’s hand a squeeze. “How’d you know?”

“I didn’t.” Her amusement turned to outright laughter when she saw the shocked expression on Tammy’s face. “Really, I didn’t.” She took a long mouthful of her tea now it was cool enough to properly drink. “I’ve been signing off those damn forms in DC for weeks now, we all have.” 

‘We’, Tammy knew, was a group of half a dozen SAC Special Agents located in the DC area but were not part of NCIS Headquarters and their Major Case teams, and were the nearest Hannah had to an NCIS peer group up there. Like the New Orleans field office, the Base and Field Office Agents in the DC area were frequently falling foul of the new rules that had created the frequent need for an SAC somewhere to sign off the Form 20-023. 

“And it was made very clear to us that signing without asking any questions wouldn’t count as ‘adequate review’ if there needed to be a case debrief.”

“Signing makes you part of the case team?” guessed Tammy, appreciating the opportunity conversations like these gave her to understand what the world looked like for the more senior agents like Isler, Pride and Hannah, especially when she concluded she was quite happy not to be the one in that position. “And the aircraft hanger was a possible escape route we didn’t have covered…” Which, Tammy knew, was exactly the sort of situation that had prompted the change of the rules they had to work under, with too many suspects being lost because the agents had been so focused on organising all the inter-agency inter-state cooperation they forgot to monitor their own local jurisdiction. “And asking it meant you’d adequately reviewed the case before signing off….” She smiled, seeing what Hannah had done.

“I hadn’t meant to suggest you’d done something wrong.” Nor had she expected them to actually find anything when they’d looked again, nevermind something as significant as it sounded like they’d found.

“I know baby.” Tammy let go of Hannah’s fingers so she could hold her mug with that hand, enabling her to pull her girlfriend into a one-armed hug and kiss the side of her head. As disappointing as it had been to see Hannah had taken off her leather jacket sometime earlier, its absence did make moments like this a little more uncomfortable with zipper rash not one of Tammy's best looks. “Anyone ever tell you you’re pretty awesome at asking the right question though?” 

“One or twice…” Hannah thought back to her previous postings where she had been predominantly used as an interrogator, a reputation that had been somewhat artificially enhanced once certain people had discovered they didn’t have clearance to understand what she’d done when on loan to Mossad. “Did you get the milk for Pride?”

“It’s in the fridge. Bet it’s still there Monday though.” She’d made a particular point of showing Pride she was putting the milk Hannah had said she owed him in the fridge while he’d been in the kitchen, but Tammy was fairly certain he’d forget to take it home with him at the end of the day, but that wasn’t the point.

“Thank you.” Hannah was about to say something else when they both heard her cellphone start to ring again, causing her to groan.

“Back to work baby…” encouraged Tammy, taking Hannah’s mug from her so she had both hands free again. “...Pride’s doing lunch, I’ll fix you a plate if you’re busy.”

“Thanks.” Hannah managed to press a kiss to Tammy’s hair before the profiler moved away, seeing that the number calling Hannah’s cell wasn’t one that caller ID was identifying. “This is Khoury…” She was distracted by Tammy’s hips as she headed back to the kitchen with their mugs. "Sorry, who is this, I mean…" Finally properly focused on the call, she also registered what language they were speaking and repeated herself in the same one the speaker was using, the voice sounding vaguely familiar for some reason. 

Stopping just inside the kitchen doorway, Tammy turned back and allowed herself a moment to just be a proud girlfriend. Watching as Hannah began speaking rapidly, clearly trying to soothe or pacify whoever was calling her, Tammy couldn't stop the love she felt for her infusing her smile. She was so happy that Hannah was getting the opportunity to be the excellent Agent she was, the DC part sucked, but Tammy knew that it had been the only way they both kept their jobs at NCIS. Had it not been such a perfect job for Hannah, Tammy had been adamant she'd take on the travelling, but karma had been on their side - the travelling wasn’t as bad as it could have been, hadn’t affected Hannah’s existing agreement with her ex-husband about how they looked after Naomi between them and was a genuinely great opportunity for Hannah as opposed to being something that made their relationship possible.

"That doesn't sound good," said Patton, his arrival in the kitchen so quiet he caused Tammy to almost jump. 

"Gee, give a girl a warning will ya?" Her smile took the sting out of her words, nodding her thanks to his offer of a coffee top up. "I think it's better than it sounds." 

"Oh?" Patton put the coffee jug back in the machine and passed her mug to her, then spun his chair round to observe Hannah, catching snippets of what she was saying. "Is that Arabic?" 

"Balochi, it's a type of Arabic.". Tammy didn't bother explaining further, knowing he'd be googling it on his tablet to find out any details he was interested in. "And it's not an angry call."

"You can tell that from here?" 

"Profiler baby…" teased Tammy, sipping her coffee, watching how Hannah moved her hands, occasionally gesticulating to presumably emphasise her point but mostly alternating between running through her hair or wrapping across her body. The big clue was that it never rested on her hip.

"Is that so?" Patton deflected her raised eyebrow with his coffee mug. "I knew she spoke Chinese and Spanish." She’d also apologised for her Albanian and Greek being ‘rusty’, though he had never managed to understand how much that meant she’d forgotten as, from what he’d seen of the English translations of those particular documents, he wasn’t certain he knew all the words in English prior to that case starting.

"And French." Naomi had said once that her mother spoke 'at least five' languages that weren't English, but didn't go on to say what they were. Tammy knew she could just ask Hannah, but had found she was enjoying discovering those sorts of things spontaneously throughout the course of their relationship. “Plus the rusty ones.” 

Tammy had mixed feelings about remembering the mercury poisoning case - in many ways it had not been a great time for her as dumping Alyson had, at the time, been one of the less great decisions in her dating history especially when she’d finally admitted to herself what her real motivation behind the decision to end it had been. But now, months later, it was also one of the better moments in her personal life, as she’d taken the courage and opened up to Hannah as a friend about her break up with Alyson, which in turn made her not only able to pay attention to what she began to notice about her friendship with Hannah, but to also ultimately act on it. 

“Which is what, seven?” decided Patton rhetorically, happy to count the rusty Albanian and Greek now Tammy had brought them up. “Including English.” He put his mug down on the kitchen counter and eased his wheelchair into a new position. “Quite the linguist, our cunning super-spy." 

Fortunately, the mouthful of coffee that Tammy didn’t manage to swallow landed mostly in the courtyard...


	8. Chapter 8

“So…” sighed Hannah, leaning forwards onto the SCIF desk and looking at a point in space somewhere between the end of her nose and the video image of her ASAC in DC as she tried to not swear in multiple languages after they’d spent an hour combining what they’d respectively discovered since they’d last spoke. “Are you another genius or an idiot?”

“Boss?”

“Sorry...” Hannah rubbed the back of her neck, hearing the faint hint of indignation in his voice. “...thinking aloud, and definitely not about you Tom!”

“Good to hear,” he chuckled, not having thought she’d been talking about him. He’d be the first to admit he’d been slightly bemused at the sudden announcement they were basically starting this task force over again with a new SAC, and a newly promoted female one on loan back from Louisiana of all places who’d be working from New Orleans every Friday: but all those concerns had disappeared for him within an hour of meeting her.

“I can’t stop thinking about bananas…” continued Hannah, closing her eyes as she tried to pin down all the parts of their situation that were feeling off to her, experience telling her to trust her gut, however random it seemed to be.

“You skip breakfast?”

“Mmm?” She opened her eyes and stood up, aware she was probably sufficiently tired she was at risk of falling asleep if she got too comfortable. “No, beignets.” She licked her lips, picking up the final traces of sugar.

“They’re basically donuts right?”

“Don’t let anyone down here hear you say that…” joked Hannah, having a thought. “Be right back.” Opening the door to the SCIF, she looked about the courtyard, wondering where everyone was, before hearing voices in the main room. “SEBASTIAN?” she called, waving at Sebastian to come over when she saw him hover doorway. “...can you join me for a minute please?”

“Er…” She saw his head swivel to his left, all too easily able to picture him wordlessly checking with Pride who clearly nodded. “...sure,” then he was soon striding towards her, stopping just outside the SCIF doorway.

“Come in Sebastian...” She gestured to the screen, absently moving her briefcase and leather jacket that she’d dumped on the counter next to the terminal more hours ago than she wanted to think about to the side of the screen that wasn’t nearest the door. “And good morning.” 

“Er, okay, but do I need to sign something or something?” he asked, always nervous when whatever they were working on forced him into this room, fully aware that the rest of their communications were, thanks to his and Patton’s skills and paranoia, already extremely robust. 

“Hmm? Oh, no, you’re fine.” She gestured to the screen where an older agent, probably contemporary with Pride, was sitting in the DC ‘casual Friday’ uniform of an open necked shirt under a jumper, rather than his usual suit and tie. “ASAC Tom Bassiter meet Special Agent Sebastian Lund.” She waited a moment while their respective hellos were exchanged, smiling when Sebastian’s was accompanied by an instinctive wave. “Bananas.”

“What about them?” asked Sebastian, having the good sense to realise she probably didn’t want him mentioning that she’d obviously found his sticky note in the kitchen at the house this morning.

“We had a case involving them, you got…” 

“My geek on?” he asked, appreciating her attempt at letting him determine how much of a science nerd he wanted to announce himself as, but happy to claim that part of him with her and trusting her trust in her team. “Bananas are awesome, rich in potassium, radioactive but not too much, only one BED...”

“BED?” asked Tom from DC, not sure why his boss was wanting to prep for a Jeopardy round on banana science facts but now experienced enough with working for her to know what looked random rarely was if she’d brought it up..

“Banana Equivalent Dose. It’s a way of explaining how weak other sources of radiation are by equating them to bananas...or the other way round I guess, explaining how weak a banana is compared to like a chest x-ray.”

“Cat Litter!” The missing piece in the puzzle had just revealed itself to Hannah, startling both Sebastian and Tom.

“Come again?” asked Sebastian, not sure he’d heard her properly. “Did you just say cat litter?”

“What’s that got to do with bananas?” asked Tom, not quite so surprised to hear her bring up the stuff, since what they’d thought was supposed to be a shipping container with some smuggled nuclear material in it had instead been a shipment of assorted bags of, amongst other things, cat litter. But how she had got back to cat litter from bananas was confusing him. Unexpectedly however, it was Agent Lund that provided the explanation, not his boss.

“Oh, that’s easy. They both can theoretically trigger a false alarm in a radiation portal monitor if there’s enough of them. Quite a few things can actually, including the driver if they’ve having certain medical treatments...” Sebastian’s animated monologue ground to a halt when he saw the expression on Hannah’s face - he knew that look and took it in good humour. “...shutting up about science stuff.”

“Thank you Sebastian, you’ve been very helpful.”

“Cool, glad to help. Nice to meet you Sir.” And, with a distracted nod towards the screen, he turned and headed back to his team, none the wiser as to how he’d helped her, but glad that he could.

“I’ll be damned…” muttered Tom as Hannah shut the door behind Sebastian. “...how did you know?”

“I didn’t.” Hannah ran her hand through her hair as she leant against the SCIF counter again. “But it was such an odd thing to find in the container.”

“What was your banana case?” He’d like to think he’d have heard about a nuclear material smuggling case involving bananas, but the NCIS case grapevine was not always reliable and at times fickle about whose cases it shared.

“A genuine false alarm. Base on high alert based on intel about a possible dirty bomb. Turned out that the truckload of radioactive material they stopped was the Base’s fruit delivery.”

“Seriously?” He’d discovered she had a rather good, if well concealed at times, sense of humour, and had learned to double check sometimes as she was very, very good at keeping a good poker face.

“Whole truckload, thousands of them, straight off the boat at the Port, straight into the Base. Every week the driver did the delivery, but that was the first week Base Security were doing radiation checks on all vehicles in and out.” She reached for the file on the counter that she’d been looking at off and on throughout the morning and looked at the satellite image on the top of the papers inside it. “We need to look again at that ship. Do we know where it is?”

“We can find out.” He made a note on the piece of paper in front of him. “It wasn’t supposed to reach port again for another few weeks.” He thought for a moment. “It’s potentially out in open water.”

“I don’t think the Seals see that as a problem.”

“Of course not.” That told him, kindly, what her intentions were going to be once they found it - waiting for it to make port somewhere was clearly not going to be the plan.

“Thanks…” She caught her lower lip between her teeth as she thought about the broader ramifications of their accidental discovery this morning and what their options were.

“Boss?”

“Mmm?” Blinking, she focused on the screen, recognising his look. “Ask away Tom, worse I’ll say is classified.”

“How did she know to call you?”

“She didn’t. It’s…” She was about to say ‘complicated’ to shrug off the reference to her time in Oman before the chaos that ended her covert career and her marriage, but decided he needed to know the truth. “...a coincidence I’m actually running the op.” Regretting she didn’t have a mug of tea to hold, she picked up her pen and started turning it slowly between her fingers. “She was originally my contact, when I was in country...gradually the focus of that operation moved away from her employer onto others, but we kept her contact number going, just in case.”

“‘We’ meaning CIA?”

“I can’t answer that Tom.” Her grin told him everything he needed to know.

“Understood Boss. But you’ve been out for a while?” He didn’t get to know much about her career, having neither seniority or mission specific clearances to get more than confirmation of her current assignment location, but had thought she’d been in New Orleans for at least a year or two.

“Mmm, but she wasn’t compromised when my original cover was, so the line stays active and diverts to my actual number unless it gets switched.” She put the pen down on the desk again. “Guess no one remembered to move her back to someone nearer after I left.”

“Lucky for us.”

“Mmm.” She stood up straight again and walked nearer to the screen, unconsciously gravitating to the same spot in the room that Dwayne favoured when he was in the SCIF. “And brings me back to my original question….is he an idiot or a genius?”

“What difference does it make?” In DC, Tom opened another file that he’d brought with him to the call, which was the full service record for this particular NCIS Agent Afloat who had been their eyes, ears and hands in the region for the ops Hannah had authorised in the last 24 hours, and whose inability to coordinate a properly thorough search of the ship with the cat litter cargo meant they had possibly missed a small quantity of smuggled nuclear material. While that wasn’t their primary purpose as a task force, it and other particularly lethal smuggled contraband items their intelligence uncovered in the region were generally tracked and intercepted either in the region or further afield, depending on where the intel came from and what the risk was of compromising their network of sources. “It’s still a major screw up isn’t it?”

“Yes…” Hannah folded her arms across her chest and chewed the side of her lower lip, trying to build the potential bigger picture scenarios that could lead to this supposedly experienced and trustworthy agent making such an ‘error’. “...but as long as he doesn’t know we know, it might also be an opportunity.”

Two months ago he would have immediately asked her what sort of ‘opportunity’ she meant, but now he recognised it was her ‘thinking like a spy’, something he acknowledged he couldn’t do having had limited undercover experience and certainly nothing like the experience she had. Even the couple of agents on the task force with more experience in covert operations and long term undercover experience than him had agreed that there was a difference doing that within the confines of an NCIS or FBI assignment and doing it for, they presumed, the CIA overseas. Suddenly them not being able to find out much about her before she appeared as a Supervisory Special Agent in New Orleans stopped being a concern and started to be something they valued. She wasn’t pretending she knew how to be a spy and a special agent - she  _ was  _ spy and a special agent. 

“What’s his official plan for the rest of the day and weekend?”

“Nothing on our side. The docks we’re watching are quiet til Sunday obviously, there’s no intel to suggest anything big or special planned there anytime soon.” Which meant he had no reason to not revert to his regular duties as Agent Afloat with the Carrier Group.

“So he’s back with his ship?”

“Not yet, he’s waiting in case we want him to hold ashore. I said I’d check with you before the final resupply flight leaves…” He glanced at his watch. “Which gives us another 90 minutes and a few.” Tom looked back at her, surprised by the sharp focus she suddenly had, suggesting he’d said something extra significant beyond just updating her on the agent’s position.

“His suggestion or yours?”

“His.” Tom frowned, recalling the conversation he’d had with the Agent. “Seemed plausible at the time.”

“Get him on the next flight, no arguments.”

“And if he argues?” Tom now understood her ‘genius or idiot’ options - either this experienced agent who’d spent much of his career as an Agent Afloat in the Gulf was an idiot who’d made one hell of a rookie mistake and was about to have one hell of a performance review, or he was a clever agent who, for whatever reason, had decided to turn traitor. Either way, there was a chance he might not welcome being hustled back to the Fleet. 

“The Master Chief can carry him straight to the Brig, but Tom?”

“Yes Boss?”

“Don’t let him argue.” She ran through everything they knew so far and what therefore was the best next step, her thoughts returning to the earlier part of their call. “And find me that ship!” Before she could say anything else to him however, another screen popped up, informing her that there was an Assistant Director was calling...hopefully for Pride, but somehow she doubted it. “Text me when he’s landed? There’s a Director calling.”

He nodded and cut the call his end, needing no further explanation from her - there was a reason he’d spent a decade as an ASAC….


	9. Chapter 9

“Can I help?” 

Dwayne, giving the pot a final stir, nearly dropped the spoon in the gumbo. 

“Sorry…” Hannah hovered in the doorway, arms crossed, taking care not to further intrude into the cooking space. “...Gregorio hates it when I do that.”

“Hates what?” asked Tammy, drawn into the kitchen by the incredible smells that had been filling the main office for the last half hour or so and were no longer ignorable, though unlike Hannah she’d somehow managed to alert Dwayne to her presence before she spoke. She wasn’t remotely phased to hear her girlfriend refer to her by her surname either, with it usually occurring when surrounded by DC blowhards that neither of them wanted in their business or, as was going to be the case now, when she’d been in a situation which meant it was appropriate to refer to all of the New Orleans team with their formal titles, as those usually got sufficiently tedious that everyone reverted to surnames. They also usually involved a DC blowhard too in Tammy’s view, but then her criteria were rather vague.

“Surprising people,” said Dwayne, deciding their lunch was almost ready. Sure, it was rather unconventional to cook lunch for his team, but he’d long ago realised he’d never be able to lead a team that didn’t have space for a little of the unconventional. “I thought you were still in with DC.” He jerked his head in the direction of the SCIF as he reached for the seasoning….it just needed another little grind of pepper and lunch would be ready.

“I was…” Seeing him turn the heat off, Hannah moved to the cupboard where the plates were, trusting that the haphazard layout that took everyone a good couple of weeks to master hadn’t been reorganised since she’d last had lunch in the kitchen, putting the stack on the table next to the stove. “...but that particular Assistant Director was in more of a monologue mood.”

“That good huh?” guessed Dwayne, having been in a fair few of those sorts of calls himself over the years, knowing she shouldn’t answer his question with any details since he wasn’t read in. “PATTON, SEBASTIAN!” His shout summoning the others to lunch made it clear he wasn’t expecting her to either. 

“How’s your case doing?” asked Hannah as she, plates deposited, headed over to her girlfriend and helped her move the glasses and jug of juice to the counter for people to help themselves to as they ate. “I’m sorry if I…”

“Nothin’ to apologise for,” dismissed Pride, picking up a fork and passing the generous portion of gumbo and rice to Hannah before starting on serving up the second portion for Tammy. “Can’t rightly hope you’ll sign our case off without a question or two.” He looked up at her as he switched from serving out the rice to the gumbo again. “And it was a good one.”

“What was a good one?” asked Sebastian, arriving slightly ahead of Patton and immediately heading for the juice.

“Hannah’s question about the aircraft hanger.”

“You got superpowers or something?” asked Patton, appearing right behind Sebastian having followed him through from where they’d been sifting through everything Pride’s contact at the DEA had sent them. “We’re not just taking down our bad guy, we’re getting three seriously nasty pieces of work as well.”

“Whitton signed then?” Hannah ate another forkful, idly wondering how her team in DC would react if she turned up one day and made one of her grandmother’s Iranian stews for them.

“We  _ will  _ get three seriously nasty pieces of work if you don’t mind signing our 20-023,” said Pride, passing the third plate to Patton and giving his friend a rather pointed look - Hannah may be ‘one of them’ and not any more interested in Agency politics than they were, but manners still counted in his kitchen, and any kitchen he’d just cooked gumbo in was ‘his’ until the dishes were washed.

“Of course I’ll sign it for you.” Hannah paused in her eating to drink some of the juice Tammy had poured for her, suddenly realising she was in danger of giving herself indigestion from eating too fast. “At least I know I can read your handwriting,” she added, thinking back to some of the truly horrific specimens some of the DC area teams were generating. She’d never admit it to anyone other than Tammy, and only then under the clear proviso she was having a moan to her girlfriend rather than a fellow agent, but she was certain at least three of her fellow SACs were deliberately avoiding ever having to sign off forms from five particular teams in the DC area solely because the lead agents had borderline illegible handwriting.

“It’s the computer age,” said Sebastian, accepting his plate with thanks from Pride.

“Hardly an excuse,” said Tammy, thinking about how much of their paperwork was still done without ever seeing a computer keyboard. “Some of those DC guys were writing their first reports before the typewriter was invented.” She held up her hand when Sebastian looked like he was about to tell her how impossible that was. “I swear baby, parts of the FBI in DC hadn’t heard about their existence, nevermind used them.”

“Didn’t stop them worrying about Y2K though,” mused Patton, appreciating Hannah and Tammy’s main point, continually amazed but no longer surprised at the age of some of the servers and network configurations he had to navigate when doing some ‘Triple P’ magic.

“I know right, it’s…” 

Dwayne tuned out Sebastian’s enthusiastic monologue that was occasionally interrupted by Patton, who was probably saying something constructive since he’d understand what Sebastian was talking about, and Tammy, who was just enjoying teasing her best friend. Plate in hand, he moved to the end of the central island so he could talk to Hannah while he ate.

“Everything ok?” he asked, taking his first bite.

“Why’d you ask?” Hannah was about to take another mouthful of her lunch, before realising she’d been rather rude. “And this is excellent, thank you.”

“You’re still one of the team, even in DC.”

“SecNav said the same thing, more or less.”

“I’d fix up a plate if they were in town, though I doubt they’d stay long enough to eat it,” he joked, knowing she wasn’t really talking about lunch orders, and neither was he. Even if they were half a world apart, whatever their respective roles and relative seniority, they would always be on the other’s team, always have the other’s back.

“You got some time this afternoon?”

“Sure.” He topped up her juice and poured some for himself. “What’s up?”

“I’d like to read in you and Patton.” She put aside her now empty plate (so much for not eating too quickly) and picked up her juice, her left hand gripping the edge of the worktop, the only hint she wasn’t completely at ease with what she had to say. “SecNav’s request last night.” She’d been going to do it anyway, but after what then happened with the Assistant Director just now, she was reconsidering the SecNav’s reminder that Hannah’s appointment to lead the task force was because she could ‘bring a unique approach’ and ‘to know that New Orleans was the Task Force’s base as much as DC was,’ before thanking her for tolerating the DC politics. Credit could be given where it was deserved or, as was this case, where it was strategically useful, and reading Patton and Pride in being the SecNav’s idea would get the Assistant Director’s objections pointed in that direction not hers.

“Just us?” The ‘not Tammy and Sebastian’ was loud in the silence between them, a silence that coincided with the other three agents reaching the end of the Y2k related debate.

“Assistant Director’s very clear orders just now.” Her expression, which was so neutral it could only be deliberate, told Pride everything he needed to know about which Assistant Director was issuing the ‘orders’, and he smiled in sympathy before eating some more gumbo. For every Assistant Director that had found Van Cleef’s exposure and departure something to celebrate and admit was an overdue embarrassment to the Agency, there were still pockets of less than enlightened senior staff, and the odd one or two who really had it in for Hannah as the ‘instigator’ of a ‘good man’s demise’.

“The normal one or the other one?” asked Tammy, not sure what they were talking about, but knowing Hannah’s case saw her caught between two of NCIS’ many ‘Assistant Directors’, neither of whom she’d ever met, but in Tammy’s mind had become the one that sounded like they were an actual human being and the other one, who Hannah tried to charitably think of as ‘work focused’ but Tammy was less generous. “Wait, don’t tell me, I can probably guess from whatever it is they ordered.”

“I can only bring Patton and Pride in on the task force.”

“Oh.” Sebastian scratched his chin, trying to work out how that worked given he’d met her ASAC this morning in the SCIF.

“Meeting Tom Bassiter’s allowed Sebastian.”

“Yeah, Tom’s cool,” agreed Tammy confusing him further. “I’ve met him in DC a coupla times.” She looked at Patton, including him into the conversation. “Tells longer stories than you P. So it’s the other one...” The ‘normal’ one would insult Hannah’s professionalism by reminding her of something that had been brought up by Hannah herself.

“But why can’t…Ow!” Sebastian abandoned his question to rub his upper arm and glare at his best friend, who sent a rather fierce look of her own right back.

“Take it as a compliment Sebastian.” Hannah shifted a small distance by changing the angle of her feet. Although her head hardly moved, she was now leaning against the kitchen countertop that smallest fraction of an inch nearer to Tammy, her left arm brushing the shorter agent’s side, silently thanking her for the defence but ultimately letting her protector know she could stand down.

“Huh?” Confused, but intrigued, he stopped rubbing his arm and, after resettling his glasses, paid more attention to Hannah than Tammy, though he wasn’t quite prepared to let her off the hook for the ‘punch’ yet.

“I’m short of some specialist skillsets but have the agreed number of agents.” Whether they were effective agents was a different question that Hannah wasn’t sure of the answer to yet.

“Which means you need some Triple P magic?” guessed Patton as he passed his empty plate to Sebastian to put in the sink.

“But I can…”

“Take it as a compliment bro!” said Patton, giving his friend a friendly ‘punch’ of his own, this one landing on the outside of Sebastian’s thigh, the computer specialist seeing what Hannah was trying to get Sebastian to see and deciding to help move the conversation along. “It means they’re thinking of you as  _ Special Agent  _ Lund rather than former Specialist now Agent Lund.”

“Oh.” Sebastian chewed on his lip for a moment, now seeing what he’d missed. “So it’s not because…” He gestured between Tammy and him.

"No." Hannah nudged her girlfriend discreetly in the side with her elbow, wanting her to take over, knowing that was a question for his best friend rather than her. 

"Baby, DC can barely cope with the idea of two women together, nevermind the science nerd Special Agent best friend housemate." It had been almost amusing as HR worked out how to prepare what should have been the fairly standard ‘workplace relationship’ disclosures Hannah and Tammy had needed to sign, including Hannah confirming to not be in a direct supervisory role regarding her girlfriend and acknowledging that Tammy was definitely not cleared to be privy to the workings of the Task Force. Almost amusing but not.

"That sounds like the plot of a really bad cheesy romantic 'comedy'," said Sebastian. "... Ow!" He rubbed his thigh while this time glaring at Patton - that was more ‘punch’ than ‘friendly’. 

"Check yo privilege white straight man!" Patton straightened his tie knot and shuffled his wheelchair so he could more easily make eye contact with Hannah. "Give me five minutes to get a drive set up for you and I'll be ready whenever you want to talk to me Hannah." 

"Thanks Patton, I.." Grinning she nudged her girlfriend again, although this time the nudge said 'stop leaning into me, I need to get my cell'. "... have some calls it seems and your 20-23 to sign first." 

“Which we need to finish so hustle you...” Tammy chivied Sebastian back to their desks where the final parts of their new operation plan just needed collating and sense checking before it could be reviewed and approved by an ‘appropriate’ SAC which, since Whitton was apparently still somewhere on the back nine at the Country Club, meant the New Orleans Field Office would definitely owe Hannah one.

“Which I guess means it’s me…” mused Pride, watching as they all dispersed including Hannah, who was finding the courtyard her favourite spot to take calls in after the long morning spent in the glow of the SCIF screens, “...doing the washing up.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am borrowing the canon character 'Joanne' who appears in the s6 episode 'Waiting for Monroe' as the personification of 'Atlantic Operations', asking for the team's help solving the hitherto unsolvable. Said character, according to the actress credit on IMDB really was giving the surname 'Sheppard', though it is spelt differently to the NCIS Director Jennifer Shepard who appeared in NCIS from s3-s5. Of all the surnames and all the first initials....someone perhaps needs to teach the writers' room how to sing the Alphabet Song.
> 
> Anyways, on with the story.....
> 
> Btw - if you're reading this in 'real time' as I'm posting it, there's been a very very minor tweak to chapter 5 as my season 5 rewatch (yay DVDs) highlighted that Gregorio speaks Russian and Hannah speaks way more languages than I'd realised. It doesn't affect the story here, but I thought you might like to know about the tweak in case you wish to reread. If you're not reading in 'real time' and managed to read from 1-10 in one sitting, then you can ignore this whole paragraph *g*.
> 
> And now, on with the story....hope you enjoy :-)

“So let me get this straight…” began Pride, swivelling his head between Hannah, who was leaning against the edge of the counter in the SCIF and Joanne Sheppard, who was on the screen facing Hannah with MTAC as a backdrop. “...you…” He looked at Hannah. “...are leading a Task Force Investigation that is primarily focused in the Middle East, and was overseen by the Director of Special Projects and Middle East Field Office…” She nodded that yes, he was right so far. “...but as of two hours ago, is now being run directly out of Atlantic Operations…” Hannah nodded again. “...and you only have one boss who is…” He turned around so he was looking at the screen. “...you Joanne?”

“Close enough Dwayne,” confirmed Executive Assistant Director Joanne Sheppard, who had last spoken to him when she had to ask him to do the impossible and find the assassin who’d manage to evade a decent chunk of Europe’s law enforcement during her killing spree. But a lot had happened since then, for all of them.

“But you’re not moving the taskforce to Virginia Beach?” If the area of operational focus was the Middle East, and the NCIS authority Stateside was Virginia Beach, aside from being an easier trip in from the airport, he wasn’t quite sure why the taskforce was staying at Anacostia. He knew better than to ask why she was clearly not at Virginia Beach today, though the late meeting with SecNav was a possible explanation. Then again, he so far hadn’t heard anything that would explain why she was briefing them from MTAC, suggesting something else entirely had brought her there for the day.

“No.” Joanne, aware that she herself was still playing catch up on a few aspects of the task force’s remit, looked past Dwayne to Hannah, who shook her head - the rest could keep for another day. “Not right now.”

“Alrighty then.” He knew there was more to it than that, but his respect for both women was such that he elected not to be curious about what that answer meant. “Where do we start?”

“Tammy Gregorio,” said Joanne, holding up her hand when she saw Dwayne start to defend his Agent, hoping he’d let her get another word or three in. “...is no longer on the bench for this one.”

“Ma’am?” Hannah stopped leaning on the counter and joined Pride up close to the screen, not expecting that piece of news. She still hadn’t adjusted to her new boss’ preference for her first name or ‘Director Sheppard’ if they were in a bigger group...or in MTAC.

“I know about your relationship, and that limits your direct supervisory authority Hannah, not your ability to have one of the best profilers the Agency’s got on the taskforce.” Since her very late meeting with SecNav and Director Vance last night, Joanne Sheppard had been reading up on the Taskforce, Hannah and the bits of the New Orleans Field Office’s recent history that she’d not already been vaguely clued up on from her decade long friendship with Dwayne Pride. It had also helped her pass the time while they were waiting for the various sitreps from the team she was in MTAC monitoring while Vance was in some Committee briefing or other. 

“Just remember, and this applies to you too Dwayne, and Agent Lund, that you’re all being read in because SecNav, Director Vance and I agreed that Agent Khoury needed some…” Joanne paused as she tried to remember what the phrase was they’d all agreed on was. “...alternative investigative specialists for certain aspects of the investigation.”

“What’s my specialism?” Others might have asked it cynically, but Pride’s question was genuine - he knew he was incredibly lucky to have Patton, Gregorio and Sebastian on his team, as each would walk into the specialist teams within NCIS, but each had their own reasons for wanting to stay with Field Operations generally, and in New Orleans specifically. He, on the other hand, was exactly where he wanted to be and, as his short-lived time as SAC at Belle Chase had shown, he was exactly where he was best qualified to be, out in the field as an Agent.

“Patton, Gregorio and Sebastian.”

“A little unconventional for DC folks?” he joked, recalling his thoughts as he cooked the gumbo.

“Some of them,” agreed Hannah, knowing by DC standards she was rather too unconventional for most of them, and by New Orleans standards, she was probably the most ‘DC’ of the lot now, Pride included. “But they’re mostly just too rigid in their thinking. I…” She ran her hand through her hair and sighed, frustrated at how she wasn’t finding something that felt so intuitively right very easy to explain. “...think it will make more sense if we just make a start?”

“Works for me.” Dwayne clapped his hands together and looked expectantly between Joanne and Hannah, only to realise something rather fundamental was missing. “Wait, what exactly is the taskforce investigating?”

“That’s my cue I think,” laughed Joanne, turning her attention to the tablet she held and pressing the screen a couple of times, sending the email that had been drafted earlier but had been waiting for the right moment to send it. “That’s the official authorisation Hannah - Dwayne, you and your team are now a part of Operation Spruce. SAC Whitton will receive notification of your tasking. Agent Khoury?”

“Yes Ma’am?”

“If Whitton gets in your way, let me know and I’ll remind him that in a rank pulling contest it’s quite clear - you and I outrank him.”

“Thank you Ma’am.” Everyone knew that not all Special-Agent-in-Charge posts were equal, and it was generally understood that any SAC coming out of one of the central specialist group’s special projects was at the very least on a par with a regional SAC, but to hear the Executive Assistant Director for Atlantic Operations make the point so bluntly about her relative seniority compared to the man who was technically Pride’s boss was unexpected and momentarily threw her off balance.

“Good. I’ll see you Monday then.” As the screen shifted from the not overly well lit MTAC to the SCIF logo, the room became even gloomier, creating an effect that always made new agents think they needed to whisper. It also did nothing for Hannah’s developing headache.

“You want me to get the team in?” asked Pride, not wanting to presume that what she was about to brief them on could be shared outside the SCIF.

“We’d be more comfortable in the main office.” Hannah picked up her jacket and briefcase, deciding to move them back to her desk in the hope that she’d not have to come back to the SCIF again today. “And let’s get your op authorisation sorted first.” She didn’t want to forget to do that for them, especially after all the extra work they’d put into it after her mostly rhetorical, somewhat random question from earlier.

“Sounds like a plan,” agreed Pride, opening the door and blinking at the brightness of the natural afternoon light in the courtyard. “You want some tea?”

“Please.” Hannah blinked in the sunlight and tried not to yawn, refusing to listen to the annoying little voice in her head that was pointing out she’d already done what was effectively a full day and it was only just gone 2, only to groan when her cell rang again.

He watched as she answered the phone, waiting the necessary split second to find out if her call altered their plan, but the faint smile and nod told him whatever it was her ASAC was calling about, which if he were a betting man was probably Joanne’s email, didn’t eliminate the need for tea and coffee.

“Alrighty then.”

* * *

  
  


“I’ll make it,” volunteered Pride, arriving at the coffee jug at the same moment as Tammy had reached it, carrying Sebastian’s mug as well as her own. “Could you ask Hannah if she wants tea?”

“Sure…” Tammy moved across the kitchen, pausing mid stride when she saw Hannah was on her cell, not wanting to either interrupt her or do anything that bloody pompous arse of an Assistant Director could get on their case about.

“It’s Tom Bassiter I think,” said Dwayne, discarding the used coffee grounds and preparing fresh ones. “Probably ringing Hannah to get an explanation about the same email I got.” He saw her concerned expression and realised the worry his ambiguity was causing. “It’s gonna be okay Gregorio.”

There was something about the rhythm of the ‘okay’ and the faint smile she could see, sitting just underneath his ‘serious boss’ face that made her believe him, and realise something else.

“You already asked her about the tea…”

“G’on.” He set the coffee percolator going again and, out of habit, picked up the dishcloth and began wiping down the countertops. “We’re gonna need fresh coffee for the sign off.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“...surprised me too Tom, but I’m not complaining.” Hannah brushed her hair away from her eyes as she looked up, her eye caught by the movement of someone crossing the courtyard towards her, her expression shifting to a warm smile when she saw it was Tammy. “No, we stay where we are…” She mouthed ‘hi’ to her girlfriend and held out her left hand, encouraging her to come nearer. “...yes, she didn’t suddenly turn 18…” As she threaded her fingers through Tammy’s, she shook her head, amused at Tammy pointing her finger at herself, checking the ‘she’ wasn’t her. “Yes...no, not yet. They’ve got a 20-23 for me first.” 

Listening to what he had to say, she started running her thumb up and down the length of her girlfriend’s finger, feeling the familiar bumps and ridges of the joints and rougher patches of skin that the years of handling the weapons of their trade had given both of them, able to work out from touch alone that she was holding her girlfriend’s right hand. “I’m sure, but if you find me that ship he can have his fun…” She had to try not to laugh when she saw Tammy start pulling funny faces at her, knowing she’d invited it when she’d coaxed her over. “Hanging up now Tom...yes, and you.” She ended the call and put the cell on the table behind her.

“Pride suggested I ask if you wanted tea…” 

Hannah could tell from the spark in Tammy’s eyes that she’d seen through his ruse, so didn’t interrupt her, but instead correctly understood that they were being given a couple of minutes to be ‘off duty’.... 

“...since he’s decided to make a fresh pot of coffee…” 

...or maybe it was more than a couple of minutes

“Wha..” Tammy let out a brief quiet shriek of surprise when she felt herself falling forwards, when Hannah caught her unawares and drew her towards her with a sharp tug on her belt buckle. But before she could really feel off balance, she was still, held close and secure by her girlfriend, being kissed. 

It took a moment for her to realise that the moaning sound she could hear in her ears when she felt the perfect combination of cheeky tug of teeth on her lower lip immediately followed by the tender caress of a warm tongue was her...unaware how she was pulling and pushing against Hannah’s shoulders and back with her arm as she tried to climb deeper into her hold, no longer content with the gentle brush of shirts and the faint hint of radiated warmth. But more than that, dammit it, she wanted to feel Hannah’s tongue in her mouth, wanted to find those playful, teasing, beautiful lips with her own tongue….but her attempt to start a kissing counterattack of her own was interrupted before she’d even really started, gasping at the surprise intensity of her body’s reaction when, after a moment’s release, her lip was once more caught in a tender, loving bite, trapped just far enough inside Hannah’s mouth for her tongue to start to lick and stroke, painting it with whirling strokes that were immediately new yet intimately familiar all at once, sending lightning bolts of arousal from her mouth to her nipples and her centre as her body instinctively recognised the rhythms and patterns of Hannah’s love.

Far too soon the need to breathe triumphed over the need to love, and the narrowest of gaps grew between them, large enough to let in air but small enough that the rest of the world stayed far away. Still somewhat overwhelmed by her response to the kiss, Tammy shifted and shuffled until, stood in between Hannah’s legs, the top of her left thigh pressed up against her girlfriend’s badge which sat on Hannah’s belt. As she curled inwards, burrowing into the familiar contours of her girlfriend’s upper body, she was unconsciously making herself small enough to tuck her head into the space under Hannah’s chin, her left ear resting against the warm patch of bare chest left visible by the neckline of the shirt she was wearing. Closing her eyes, the sounds of New Orleans faded away and she listened to the steady thump of her girlfriend’s heart and the not quite as steady ragged sounds of her own breathing.

Hannah let her body shift with her girlfriend’s shuffling movements, straightening her back and lifting her head up to create the space Tammy needed to find her favoured ‘snuggle spot’ as she’d termed it, albeit more used to having her seeking it out when they were more horizontal than vertical. Wrapping her right arm around Tammy’s back, and ignoring the hard parts of her badge pushing against her hipbone and thigh, Hannah resumed her aimless stroking motion down the edge of Tammy’s trigger finger, the quiet moment of stillness with her girlfriend as restorative as a lengthy power nap. However, when she started to feel more of her girlfriend’s weight leaning into her, she was slightly concerned, as it reminded her what normally happened when they were in bed and Tammy got like this..

“Tam?”

“Mmm...yeah Ba,,,by?” 

It had taken Hannah a little time after she’d first arrived in New Orleans to appreciate all the different shades and colours Gregorio could convey with that single word, soon understanding that it wasn’t the word itself that was the friendly greeting or despairing sigh, but the canvas on which Tammy loaded the colours and shades of her emotions to create the complexities that made her who she was. Falling in love with Tammy had seen the canvas stretch and shift, creating whole new areas for new colours and shades that only Hannah got to see and hear, spoken in moments that were unique to them and theirs to share with only each other....just as that one was, but not normally in the courtyard at the field office.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep on me Gregorio…”

“One minute…” mumbled Tammy, snuggling more deeply into Hannah, no idea what it was about her that meant Tammy was now the ‘snuggler’ in the relationship - it wasn’t an inclination she’d ever had before, but she was liking it, as was Hannah.

“Huh.” Shaking her head in a mixture of amusement and despair, while trying not to think about the four extra hours of sleep Tammy had compared to her (that was painful enough - the fact it was more than twice as much sleep as she’d got was something she wasn’t even prepared to allow herself to think about), Hannah considered what her options were and what she was going to do about it.

* * *

  
  


“What was that?”

“Huh?” Sebastian looked up from his computer screen at Patton and thought about his question. “It sounded like Gregorio being tickled.”

“Gregorio?” Patton shook his head as he continued over to his friend’s desk. “Nah, she’s not ticklish man.”

“Sure she is.” Sebastian stood up when he saw Pride also coming into the main room, carrying a trayful of mugs and what looked like Hannah’s blue mug with a teabag cord hanging out of it.

“Since when?” Patton was fairly clear that he’d heard Percy and LaSalle complaining more than one time about Gregorio not fighting fair as they were both ticklish but they couldn’t counter-tickle her.

“Since forever, but only in one spot.” Sebastian thanked Pride for the coffee and took his and Patton’s mugs from the tray right before Pride put the tray down on Hannah’s desk.

“What’s only in one spot?” asked Hannah, giving a thumb drive that she was holding to Patton for him to connect to his tablet since her laptop had died while she’d been in the SCIF. “Thanks for the tea Dwayne,” she added, putting her briefcase and leather jacket on her chair and picking up the mug.

“Gregorio’s ticklish spot,” explained Patton, opening up the thumb drive folders on his tablet screen, unable to stop his eyes widening when he saw what was on it. “You want all of this up?” he asked Hannah, fingers quickly cycling through all the folders, realising that the encryption on some of them would even slow him down for a good few minutes if it were ever a ‘no password’ situation.

“Just the one called Op Brief, but let's do the 20-23 first?” While she had no doubts about their operation plan, knowing they were not prone to making the sort of mistakes the new protocol was designed to check for and eliminate, she also knew that her own integrity and Dwayne’s meant that when she did sign any of them for him, it would be only once the proper brief and review had been completed.

“Sure thing, Sebastian?” Dwayne looked to the taller agent for a hint as to where the file was that they’d put together that would serve as their Operations Brief which they’d then send out to all their assisting agencies and departments ahead of Monday’s Op.

“It’s on Tammy’s desk.”

“Ah, thanks.” Nursing her mug of tea, Hannah crossed the familiar path from the front of her desk to the front of Gregorio;s. Putting her mug down on the desk and picking up the file and a pen that, on second glance proved to be one of Hannah’s ‘nice’ pens that Tammy had ‘stolen’ from her at some point, Hannah leaned against the front edge of the desk like she’d done literally hundreds of times before and began to read.

“So?” whispered Patton so loudly it made Pride wonder why he was whispering.

“So what?” Sebastian’s whisper was just as loud.

“What’s the spot?”

“No idea.”

“What?” Patton shot a careful look at the doorway into the courtyard, checking to see if Gregorio had suddenly appeared - she hadn’t. “How can you not know?”

“Because I don’t.”

“But..”

“Look, I don’t alright.” Sebastian held up his hands in a ‘back off’ gesture. “She scares me.”

“What are we talking about?” whispered Pride, coming to stand next to them, making both jolt in surprise.

“Inside left elbow.”

“Excuse me?” Pride spoke on behalf of all three of them, as their heads swiveled towards Hannah who was in the process of turning the file through ninety degrees so she could look at the map the right way round.

“You heard.” Looking up, she smiled at them, wishing she had her cell in a more accessible pocket so she could take a photo of the three of them, all looking confused but for different reasons. “Dwayne?”

“Yes Hannah.” Delighted to have a way out of a situation he didn’t remotely understand, Pride went over to Hannah to see what had caught her attention.

“Here…” She turned to the final page and scribbled her signature in the relevant place, adding the date once she’d worked it out. “...you must let me know how it goes, that’s quite a haul of bad guys if you get everyone.”

“Thank you.” He took the file from her, surprised at how quickly she’d gone through everything before remembering she’d been part of the team when they’d started building the case against Billy Sorporlt, not to mention being an excellent agent.

“Of course.” She put _her_ pen back on her girlfriend’s desk and picked up her mug of tea, watching Sebastian and Patton with well concealed amusement while Pride went over to his desk and put the file down. 

What this morning had been a blown operation before it had even begun thanks to the need for a Form 20-023 that wouldn’t be obtainable in time, had turned into an even better operation that would not only solve the Navy’s case but also help out the DEA and ATF with cases against two of their higher value targets, and everything was authorised in plenty of time to get everything set up.

“Hey…” Tammy came into the room carrying her backpack, and headed to her desk, but not before noticing what Sebastian and Patton had been doing seconds earlier before she’d heard Hannah and Pride’s voices..

“Where’ve you been?” asked Sebastian, fiddling with his glasses, which couldn’t have made him look more nervous and ‘caught’.

“Conference room, grabbing my paperwork.” Tammy dropped her backpack on her chair and headed over to the tray to grab her mug, thanking Pride in the process. 

When Hannah had brought up bringing Patton and Pride into the taskforce, Tammy had gone and gathered up the paperwork she’d planned to get through that afternoon and dumped it in the upstairs conference room. That way, once the Sorporlt Op was signed off by Hannah, she could head up and get on with her work without forcing Hannah to have to spend even longer in the SCIF if she didn’t need to, as with Tammy in the conference room, there was no way she could be claimed to be ‘included’ in any briefing about an Operation she was absolutely not cleared to be a part of. 

“And you’re both idiots.”

“He started it.” Sebastian pointed at Patton.

“What?” Patton glared at his so-called-friend who had immediately cracked under zero pressure from Gregorio.

“Told you,” said Hannah simply, content to sip her tea, enjoying being in a group of agents and not ‘being the boss’ - she hadn’t realised, even when she had been ‘the boss’ of this office, quite how welcoming they’d been until it came to trying to crack the team in DC.

“Yeah, yeah.” Tammy stood in the middle of the office, halfway between her desk and Hannah’s and raised an eyebrow pointedly at Hannah as she sipped her coffee. “By the way, you lost.”

“I did?” Hannah looked at Patton in surprise. “I’m not sure if I’m impressed or concerned.”

“What?” Patton looked at Sebastian again, seeing if he was any the wiser, only to get a completely blank look back.

“What’d I do?” asked Patton as, at the same time, Sebastian asked ‘What’d you win?”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Tammy quickly, deciding she didn’t want to explain in front of Pride that she and Hannah had made a bet between themselves as to which of Patton and Sebastian would be the first to make a ‘cunning linguist’ reference when inevitably they were reminded quite how many languages Hannah had some sort of ability to speak. Hannah had been convinced that it would be Sebastian by virtue of being Tammy’s best friend and housemate, but Tammy had declared him a mixture of too innocent, too polite and too nervous to try, with Patton being the more likely.

“Hang on…” Sebastian’s easy acceptance of his best friend shutting down that line of enquiry was short lived. “...if he…” He pointed at Patton. “...meant you…” He pointed at Hannah, who had finally understood that her girlfriend’s raised eyebrow was a request for her to shift up so Tammy could also lean against her desk. “...lost a bet, why does that make me also an idiot?”

Not that Sebastian was necessarily going to dispute her assessment - as far as his best friend was concerned, he was an idiot at least three times a day unless there was an ‘R’ in the month, though what difference that made he hadn’t definitively determined yet, but it would be nice to know precisely what his latest ‘idiot’ thing was given all the evidence seemed to indicate this was all on Patton.

“Different issue Sebastian,” explained Pride, who, quietly out of the way of everyone, had been working on his own investigation to untangle how exactly everything went together.

“It is?”

“If I’m right…” He looked at Hannah who gave a ever so slight nod, confirming that so far he was doing fine. “...it’s a good job you’re needed by Khoury for your tech skills not your spycraft.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not ticklish on the inside of my left elbow baby.”

“Wait, but…” Patton and Sebastian looked at each other, each instinctively reaching towards the inside of their left elbows with their right hands, which was all the easier because they were both holding their mugs in their left hands. “You set us up!”

“You set yourselves up,” pointed out Hannah, standing up and heading back to her desk, though rather than sitting at it properly, she perched on the front corner nearest the screens, which was a hint Patton took to push the ‘Ops Brief’ folder up onto the mail screens. “First with the whispers so I could feed you the intel.”

“Which was false…” pointed out Tammy ‘helpfully’, smirking at her housemate’s expressive eye roll at her helpfulness.

“Then by immediately trying to tickle yourselves.”

“You saw that?”

“Yes Patton, I saw that.” She’d actually seen their movements disturb the patterns of light and shadow on the floor in her peripheral vision while reading through the op plan, and it hadn’t taken much knowledge of human behaviour patterns to infer what they were doing, though immediately jerking into stiff, static positions when Tammy announced her arrival was final confirmation the two were connected.

“So we’re bad spies…”

“Really bad spies…” corrected Tammy, sipping her coffee. 

“Fine, really bad spies,” agreed Sebastian, undecided whether he wanted to ask Hannah to help him be better or not, “...but that’s not being an idiot.”

“No,” agreed Pride, “but thinking it was good intel?” He drained his coffee mug and put it back on the tray that was still sitting on Hannah’s desk.

“Oh, yeah…” Sebastian finished his own coffee and went up to the tray and put his empty mug next to Pride’s, which also meant he was now stood able to see whatever was going to be on the screen. “...that was idiotic.”

“Don’t worry Sebastian,” reassured Hannah, smiling when she heard how disappointed he sounded. “With practice you can get better.”

“You’ll teach me?” he asked brightly, pushing his glasses up his nose as he moved towards Tammy so Patten had room to put his own mug back on the tray.

“Me? No.” Hannah glanced at her watch to see the time. “But if you ask Naomi I’m sure she’ll help you. Now…” She folded her arms across her front and looked at them all thoughtfully. “...welcome to the Operation Spruce Taskforce…”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't a crossover, no knowledge of the other NCIS shows is necessary beyond knowing that Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange appears in NCIS Los Angeles, which is set around the West Coast bit of the Office of Special Project (OSP), and is something of an Intelligence Community legend in the NCIS canon universe. Dwayne and Tammy explain Jenny Shepard in this chapter. The Hannah-Hetty-Jenny connection is not (yet) show canon and is entirely mine *g*.

“That’s so cool.” 

Hannah smiled when she heard the distinctive soft ‘thwack’ sound and indignant ‘hey!” of Gregorio pushing Sebastian’s arm by way of observation that his point was, well, not very Special-Agent-like in its articulation, and his response.

“But it is, okay, so not cool exactly, but it’s really...different?” He paused then nodded his head enthusiastically, satisfied he was making a better explanatory attempt now. “Really different way of looking at the situation to how it’s usually done.” He glanced at Pride to check he wasn’t getting the ‘stop talking’ look from his boss, then looked at Hannah. “I’ve never seen NCIS involved in anything like this before.”

“It’s not the usual way,” agreed Hannah, “and I didn’t make many friends setting it up.” Fortunately, she’d already made a few when she’d gone up against Van Cleef, so she hadn’t been entirely isolated in her task.

“I can imagine.” Pride gave her the nod they all knew was Pride-speak for ‘I’m proud of you’. “Sounds like you’ve got a pretty established team then, so how can we help?”

“Lots of ways, but right now…” Hannah turned the screen back on and opened a different folder on the thumbdrive she’d given Patton, now the general brief part was done and they were all, at a high level, read in. “...I’ve an incoming call to my cell that I need to find so I can call them back…” She looked at Patton who gave her a thumbs up, acknowledging that was something well within the Triple P skillset, and what her original ask had been going to be when it was just Patton and Pride read in. “...forensics from the field that I need making sense of so I can find out what was really happening there, where it came from and where it’s gone…” Sebastian also nodded, already thinking about what he needed to quickly brush up on in terms of marine fuel types, Navy assault team tactics and a few other things besides. “...and someone who is having really bad luck with intel, and I need to know why.”

“What did they say when you asked them?” asked Tammy, starting to build up a picture of the sort of profiles for each potential scenario she could think of. 

“That’s the problem, I can’t ask them.”

“Oh?” Tammy looked up at the screen which Hannah had just turned back on and waited for whatever it was she needed to be shown to appear, expecting it to be some heavily redacted confidential source from one of the other agencies, so was rather surprised to see it was an NCIS personnel file for an Agent. “He’s one of ours?”

“Agent Afloat.”

“What’s your gut telling you?” Pride knew how vital good Agents Afloat were to the whole intelligence community network, with them often providing pivotal links between front line operations when it wasn’t possible to get others in to help, functioning often as intel sources in their own right.

“That I need to speak to the person that called me this morning again and hear what they think happened in that refueling point.” If it had been the team in DC she wouldn’t have expressed herself quite so bluntly, but this wasn’t DC, thankfully.

“Alright then.” Pride clapped his hands together, drawing his team’s attention back to him and away from Hannah who was now looking he noticed, as tired as he’d guessed she must be given the early start. “Go! Learn things!”

“Hannah?”

“Mmm?”

“Couch isn’t too bad,” he said, nodding in the direction of the couch upstairs they’d all grabbed a few hours of sleep on at one point or another during long days that grew into long weeks.

“That couch is lumpy as hell Dwayne, and you know it.”

“True, but it takes a coupla’ hours to notice.” He looked at her with that knowing smile of his that always made her feel like she was being read like an open picture book which, for someone with as much covert experience as she did, had taken a while to adjust to. “You need all the answers today?”

“Just the phone number.” She rubbed the back of her neck, the day’s events catching up with her.

“Then go rest awhile…” He nodded in the direction of the couch again, knowing he’d not be able to get her to agree to go try and sleep even when she worked for him. “...nothing in the rules to stop you doing your paperwork on a couch…”

“Alright…” She nodded in agreement, recognising when she was beaten. He had a point about the paperwork - for all the issues the last 24 hours had thrown up with the call and everything arising from the raids, the taskforce had still had a busy week that had got results, which was good news for the team and meant paperwork for Hannah.

“Good.” He patted her on the elbow and picked up the forgotten tray of now empty mugs - he’d take them to the kitchen on his way to see how Patton was doing, knowing that with him out of the room Gregorio, who he knew had been discretely watching them closely, might have more luck at persuading Hannah to take a break.

  
  


Pushing wearily to her feet, Hannah turned around and gathered up the couple of files that she had been carrying around, along with her briefcase and jacket. Remembering that she’d killed the laptop’s battery hooking it up to the SCIF system so she could have the latest intel to look at during the meetings, she sighed heavily and walked around the end of her desk, hoping she hadn’t dreamt deciding to keep a charging cable in one of the drawers.

“Second one, right hand side.”

“Huh?” She looked up at Sebastian, not sure if he’d been speaking to her or just mumbling in general.

“Laptop power cord’s in the second drawer on the right hand side…” He paused, picturing the drawer’s contents. “...blue band holding it together.” The green one was for the tablet docking station - he’d got fed up with Pride mixing them up that he’d gone round and colour coded everyone’s so they knew which was which. Once Hannah started coming in more often than not on a Friday to do her work, he’d made a note of the laptop and tablet models she had and made sure that there were some spare cords for them.

“Thank you Sebastian.” She opened the drawer and saw three tidy bundles of cables, each secured with a coloured band, including a very un-Sebastian purple sparkle one. “What does purple sparkle go with?”

“Naomi’s laptop.”

“Ah.” Hannah looked at him with a grateful smile, appreciative of his thoughtfulness for her daughter. “Thank you...did she say thank you too?” She was relieved that Naomi was growing up to be a happy High School student, still only 12, hardly a teenager, but not a little girl any more.

“With a hug,” confirmed Sebastian, seeing Hannah’s eyebrow twitch - Naomi was still quick to hug her, was building a really strong friendship with Tammy and getting to know the rest of the team well, but on the whole, wasn’t an enthusiastic hugger with anyone except Hannah. “She was about to learn the hard way to save as you go otherwise with her homework.”

“What subject?” 

“History.” He grinned at Hannah’s wince, Naomi’s loathing of her history teacher and what they were covering in class now something the whole team was familiar with. “Yeah, the hug was mostly for saving the homework I think.”

“Well, thank you again from me on her behalf,” repeated Hannah, closing the drawer, another mystery solved as she put the neat bundle in her briefcase. “And thank you for whatever it is you find out.”

“Of course…” He tapped a couple of keys on his keyboard, already into the case files. “...am I allowed to look at the other ones too? Only…” He trailed off when he saw her open her mouth as if to speak, only to see it turn into a yawn, which he politely waited for her to finish before getting ready to continue with his reasoning for wanting to look more broadly than just the unofficial fuel depot they’d found along an otherwise deserted section of coastline.

“If you can see it you can open it.” Hannah swallowed, trying to shake off the lingering fuzziness from the yawn. 

“So cool…” sighed Sebastian, not used to this way of working where he wasn’t going to have to fight for every scrap of access to be able to look at a scene properly. Usually anytime they were involved in a case involving someone else, it was a battle, but then this wasn’t someone else, this was Hannah. “...I’ll get you some answers Hannah.”

“That would be good…” She drifted off into thought, mentally rearranging some ideas and assumptions they already had into a different order. Her distraction meant she didn’t see his brief hesitation when he heard her say answers would be ‘good’ and not the ‘great’ he’d been accustomed to hearing from her. “...what would be great if you also gave me some questions.”

“Questions?” Sebastian’s hesitancy disappeared again and he leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head in what Tammy had once termed ‘Sebastian thinking position 2’, as he tried to see what she was getting at. “Questions about what? Where?” He wasn’t used to be asked to come up with questions - as a forensic analyst his job had been to answer other people’s questions, and that’s what he generally considered himself to still do now as an Agent.

“Exactly.” Hannah blinked and made a conscious, if tired effort, to focus on him and not be distracted with the parts of the puzzle she’d been trying to make fit together for a couple of weeks. “There’s something else going on, somewhere, that makes all of this make more sense than it currently does. But I don’t know what it is or where to go looking for it, because it’s…” She closed her eyes and sighed, realising she wasn’t making much sense.

“Because it’s just over the horizon? So if you could get a hint as to which way to go, you’d get close enough to it that it’s not over the horizon anymore?” guessed Tammy, who’d been listening to their conversation while she’d been getting into the files she now had access to, though unlike Sebastian and Patton she’d been doing it at ‘normal human’ rather than ‘nerd’ speed.

“Yes.” Hannah turned back, the relief she felt at someone, anyone understanding what she’d been feeling instinctively clear in her smile, a smile that warmed even more when her inner ‘proud girlfriend’ voice kicked in to point out that it wasn’t ‘someone’ who had understood her, but Tammy. 

“Baby?” Somehow, both Hannah and Sebastian knew she was talking to Sebastian.

“Yes?” 

“She means find all details about all the random but boring shit you find in those scenes that no one but you would bother looking at because they’re so boring there’s no way they could have anything to do with the case.” 

It wasn’t how Hannah would have put it, nor did it comply with any of the ‘how to frame an evidence review request’ training materials federal agencies produced by the binderful: it was a genuine, uniquely Gregorio explanation, and one that made perfect sense to Sebastian.

“You want the details about cat litter when it’s a case about bananas.” That, he could definitely do. 

It was clear Sebastian was energised now he had a clear handle on exactly what it was Hannah wanted from him - he’d been thinking about the case with the truckload of bananas being delivered to the Base ever since the conversation in the SCIF, and had remembered it was probably the first case they’d worked together when he’d actually managed to spot her ‘stop talking now because others are going to be mad’ look in enough time to stop talking before others got mad, which he remembered meant he’d never actually got to explain why cat litter was like bananas.

“Please.” Hannah rubbed the side of her neck, trying to prepare herself for picking up her heavy briefcase to head to the couch. “Only I’m not sure I believe it’s bananas, so to speak.” She picked up her briefcase and files as she saw his nod and grin of understanding - she couldn’t say outright that she felt the scene report she’d been given was a work of partial fiction trying to keep something hidden, but he understood what she meant now, understood what she wanted him to do. 

“On it.” As he started rapidly tapping away on the keyboard, starting to rearrange all the bits and pieces of information into his system, Hannah grabbed her jacket as an afterthought, and crossed the office, heading for the couch, not even noticing she’d picked the route to the corner that took her straight past her girlfriend’s desk and the rationalising her decision based on it being the most direct. 

“Hey…” Tammy reached out as Hannah went by the end of her desk and caught hold of her hand, interweaving her fingers with her girlfriends so she could share the weight of the briefcase. “...let me take this…” she added, standing up and slipping in between the corner of her desk and her girlfriend so she was stood pressed up against Hannah’s back. Gently kissing the back of Hannah’s neck, lips able to land on a sliver of skin showing through loose hair, Tammy felt the tension and exhaustion radiating from her girlfriend intensify as, for a split second it seemed like she was going to fight Tammy on this...and then there was the firm tug on her arm as its whole weight shifted into Tammy’s hand. “Go upstairs baby, I’ll bring this up with some tea.”

“Mmm…” Hannah swayed on her feet a little, adjusting to no longer having the weight of the bag holding down her left arm, trying to ignore how easy it would be to slump backwards, knowing Tam was right there to catch her. “...thanks Tam.” Her resolve to stay on her own two feet nearly shattered when she felt the gentle brush of familiar lips on the back of her neck again, but she managed to use the warm buzz she felt to pick up her feet and keep going.

* * *

  
  
  


“Speak.”

“Excuse me?” Pride turned around slowly from where he’d finished drying the mugs he’d washed up, unwilling to ever admit he found the activity soothing as he’d never find a clean mug in the field office ever again.

“Something’s happened and I think you know what it is,” insisted Tammy, putting Hannah’s bag down carefully on one of the stools then starting to fill the kettle to make the tea, her movements sharp and tense.

“I don’t…”

“I don’t mean with the taskforce case, I mean with the politics.” The kettle full and set to boil, Tammy turned round and leaned against the counter, looking at her boss and friend with the sharp eyes of a worried lover not an agent. “At lunch I was locked out and any clearances would have come from OSP, yet here we are.” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow in challenge. “What happened? Because that’s not Hannah on 3 hours sleep, a shitty op debrief and a load of spies having a pissing contest.” She took a breath, for the moment unaware that she’d possibly given her boss a little more information about last night’s events than she wanted to. “That’s a whole n’other level of beat even without Director Shepard in her head.”

“She got a history with Joanne Sheppard?” Out of everything Gregorio had just said, that was what surprised Pride the most - he could understand her anger, had been expecting it in fact, knowing that was how she kept it together when otherwise she might think she’d be weak or fail. But Joanne Sheppard wasn’t the sort of person that ‘got in someone’s head’, it wasn’t her style generally, and certainly he knew of no reason why there’d be any history between her and Hannah.

“No, the other one…red head? Died on the job?” Tammy had been at the FBI when Jenny Shepard had been the NCIS Director and, if she was honest with herself, probably hadn’t even heard of NCIS then, nevermind known what the Director was called, but after a couple of passing references to her, usually when they needed to look at old case files from her time as Director, Tammy had got curious and done some Googling.

“ _Jenny_ Shepard.” Pride sighed, starting to find tiny pieces of evidence coming together, like Hannah’s struggles earlier to call Joanne Sheppard anything other than Ma’am, when normally she was very quick to pick up people’s name preferences. Though from what he also knew of Joanne Sheppard from way back, she wasn’t slow to make sure people who called her ‘Jo’ knew to stop it, so her apparent indifference to the normally loathed ‘Ma’am’ was another clue he’d failed to collect. “First female Director, took the job in 2005, former partner of Gibbs…” He didn’t need to explain who Gibbs was, knowing Gregorio had done a couple of profiles for his team over the years. “...died in 2008.” He looked at Tammy in confusion, not seeing how Hannah could have known her well enough for her to be ‘in her head’.

“Mossad.” Seeing he was about to ask more questions, Tammy held up her hands to stop him. “All I know is that not long after she started, Hannah first went overseas and it was some sort of joint US-Israeli thing.”

“But Victor Zelko…”

“Was later, yeah, that was her _second_ Mossad thing.” Tammy’s nose scrunched as she spoke. “Or maybe third...anyway, the _first_ time she was sent to play nice with them…”

“Jenny Shepard would have been involved in that…” nodded Pride, unable to recall exactly how it was that she’d become the Mossad expert, but there was no one with a better dialogue with Mossad than her when she’d been Director. He could only imagine what effect Jenny at her best had made on a young, still fresh out of college Hannah Khoury, and what the impact of her death would have been. “Wasn’t that around the time…”

“...when she met Ryan?” Tammy smiled grimly and nodded slowly, knowing she hadn’t needed to use her profiling skills to join a couple of dots. “Yeah, but Naomi’s a sweetheart…” Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, her message loud and clear that she wasn’t remotely fond of Hannah’s ex-husband but very, very fond of Hannah’s daughter. “...and who am I to judge ex-husbands?” 

Fortunately, the kettle boiling saved Pride having to answer that particular question which he’d rather hoped was rhetorical.

“All I do know,” he began, knowing that once the water was in the mug she’d be wanting to go find Hannah who had hopefully made it to the couch upstairs by now, “...is that SecNav met with Director Vance and Joanne…” He tactfully omitted the ‘Sheppard’, “...while Hannah was flying down here last night. Then during this morning, those two did some rearranging and while we ate gumbo Joanne took over from OSP and the AD in the Middle East Field Office.” He was too polite to ask Tammy which of those two parts of NCIS had the ‘normal’ AD and which had the ‘other one’ she’d referenced as they ate lunch. “And read us all in as specialists, not agents.” 

It was a rather pedantic distinction that was insignificant to anyone outside the highest and tightest of inner circles at the top of NCIS, but how many Special Agents were assigned to teams and taskforces was one of the most controversial issues in any Agency. Specialists on the other hand, were virtually ignored by everyone as long as there was the money to pay for them.

“What’s your specialism?”

“The three of you.” He put the dishcloth back in its place, deciding he’d probably given Patton enough of a headstart in looking at what they’d been sent to be amenable to company and his questions. “How long she been having problems with the Middle East AD?” He kept his face deliberately neutral when Gregorio looked sharply over her shoulder at him. “If it was OSP, Henrieta Lange would have been sitting in this kitchen drinking tea with Hannah weeks ago.”

It seemed he wasn’t the only one keeping his reactions deliberately neutral, based on how calmly she turned her focus back to brewing Hannah’s tea, which in turn caused him to metaphorically kick himself. Of course...that was why the rest of Hannah’s team was staying at Anacostia rather than moving to Virginia Beach. It wasn’t OSP that was keeping them there, it was DIA.

“How much do you know?” he asked, the question surprising Tammy.

“About?”

“Operation Spruce.”

“Same as you, probably less since I’ve not looked at any files or had any briefing other than just now in the office.” Tammy turned back around, Hannah’s blue mug in her hand, the steam rising gently from the still steeping tea. Her expression however, told him that he’d asked the question wrong, not that he was asking the wrong question. So he tried again.

“How much did you know about who Hannah was working for and why it had to be at Anacostia?”

“Enough to know that Hetty Lange’s one hell of a broad and Hannah trusts her.” She gently jiggled the teabag in the hot water to encourage the brewing along, not wanting to take the mug upstairs with the teabag still in. “And no, I’m not telling you how I know this.” The pinking of her cheeks told Pride it probably was a good story, while the set of her jaw told him it was best left well alone.

“Sounds about right for Hetty,” he agreed, deciding he’d add some information of his own which hopefully would help. “Joanne Sheppard does too, she spent some time in OSP, I imagine Hannah knows that too.”

“Ah.” Tammy concentrated on making sure the tea was brewed to the right strength for a moment, then putting the teabag in the trash. “Thanks Pride, sorry ‘bout...y’know.”

“No apology necessary, I’d have done the same…” He saw her eyebrow arch and shook his head, pleased to see she was back to her usual, unique form of sassy-cheek. “...if it were Rita…” he clarified, gently making the point that she was getting the free pass because he understood and respected her feelings for Hannah, rather than using Sebastian or herself as his example - he’d have been as protective in his reaction then, but he knew it would be coming from a different loving place, more like his love for Laurel. “You gonna get in trouble if we organise Pizza Friday for Naomi?”

“Nothin’ I can’t handle!” declared Tammy, winking as she spoke, then, picking up the mug, she left the kitchen, leaving Dwayne chuckling as he sent a quick text to Loretta extending the invitation to her and CJ.


	12. Chapter 12

“Here…” Tammy offered the mug of tea ahead of the briefcase. Seeing her girlfriend cradling the mug of steaming liquid with both hands, she managed to keep her smile underneath her poker face as she put the briefcase on the floor at the far end of the couch that they all instinctively put their feet on when lying down. Hopefully, it was now too far away from Hannah’s easy reach to seem worth the effort to get.

“Thanks.” Hunching over the mug, inhaling the steam as she closed her eyes, Hannah felt the couch seat shift as Tammy took the hint and sat down next to her. Feeling an arm wrap around her shoulders, Hannah kept her eyes closed as she allowed herself to be pulled into Tammy’s side, their bodies fitting together in an almost exact reversal to earlier, with it being Tammy providing the ‘shelter’ from the world for Hannah. “Mmm…” Hannah slowly opened her eyes and blinked dopily, the combination of the emotional exhaustion and steam making them want to stay closed. “She was in MTAC...” She offered, by way of explanation, knowing that Tammy had to be wondering what had caused her to...almost crumble, knowing that she wanted Tammy to know. “...wasn’t expecting that, so with everything else...just surprised me.”

Rather than saying anything, not wanting Hannah to feel like she was needing to justify anything to her, Tammy gently pressed a kiss into her girlfriend’s hair as she rubbed circles on her back.

“I’m okay…”

“I know you are baby…” murmured Tammy softly, gently delivering more kisses into Hannah’s hair as she felt the tension seep from her as she sank into Tammy, her subconscious recognising that here, with her, there wasn’t the need for the constant tension and alertness Hannah seemed to otherwise always have within her.. “...you want to give me a list for the store?”

“No…” Hannah answered instinctively, right before she sipped her tea. Then, having rested the mug on Tammy’s knee, the actual question registered with her, with the topic change abruptly interrupting the rapid cycling of fragments of memories from more than a decade ago. “...I don’t know…” she amended, realising what Tammy had actually asked her was connected with going to the grocery store to buy food for her place for the weekend for them and Naomi, an idea coming to her. “...do you like Fesenjoon? Naomi hates it, but likes Ghormeh Sabzi...and Abgoosht.” She sat up properly, seeing Tammy’s confused looking expression. “You have no idea what I’m talking about?”

“None at all,” admitted Tammy honestly, not expecting her question to be this successful at helping Hannah’s thoughts shift gear. “Are they bands or something?” She’d finally got Hannah to show her the photos of those ‘K-Pop guys’ a couple of weeks back, though she still refused to listen to their music voluntarily - which didn’t mean she didn’t know most of their songs backwards now, given Naomi’s constant listening to them. That, along with muddy soccer kit, was the latest fuel for Ryan’s passive-aggressive emails to Hannah, though thanks to Sebastian and Patton, an algorithm checked their contents for anything that was actually informative about Naomi and auto-archived the ex-husband bullshit.

“Food.” Hannah lightly kissed perplexed lips then settled back against the couch so she could drink her tea, though she missed the feeling of Tammy’s hand rubbing her back. “Fesenjoon is a chicken stew with pomegranate and walnuts.” She turned her head so she could see Tammy’s reaction, which didn’t seem to involve pulling horrific faces. “My mother likes to remind me that I shouldn’t be surprised that Naomi doesn’t like it, as I hated it until one day as a teenager it suddenly became my favourite.”

“I best try it before Naomi starts to like it then…” declared Tammy, turning her head towards Hannah, who could see her genuine interest and enthusiasm. “What’s Abooost?”

“Abgoosht,” corrected Hannah gently, reaching out and capturing her girlfriend’s right hand again, finding the physical contact helped her to stay in 2020 and not be swept back to those earlier memories. “It’s another stew, chickpea and lamb. First of my grandmother’s recipes my mother taught me to cook.”

“How old were you then?” asked Tammy, having a sneaking suspicion she already knew the answer.

“Just after my twelfth birthday…” Hannah was momentarily distracted by the little bits and pieces of memories that included a particular pencil case and her first ‘proper’ turf-burn that went the full length of the outside of her thigh and hip, and collectively meant she knew with certainty how old she’d been when the Iranian cooking lessons. “...same age as Naomi.”

“Yeah?” Tammy tried to remember how old she’d been when her mother had started passing on what she considered to be the ‘family secrets’. “Bet you were a better student than me…”

“There was lots of yelling…” recalled Hannah, not fighting the yawn that snuck up on her this time, catching her girlfriend’s comically exaggerated look of shock in her peripheral vision. “...no, really, lots of yelling…”

“I mean, sure, there was lots of yelling too, but we’re Italian…” That was one of Tammy’s main memories of growing up - the noise level dramatically increased the more of her mother’s family were involved. “...even good conversations were loud.” Somehow, whenever she pictured Hannah’s childhood with her Professor parents, everything had a thoroughly civilised and softly spoken soundtrack.

“These weren’t good conversations…” Hannah leaned forwards to put her mug on the floor now she’d had as much tea as she wanted. Resting her elbows on her knees, she turned her head so she could look back at her girlfriend. “...I was bad.”

“But you’re a great cook!” Tammy reached out and resumed her aimless soothing patterns on Hannah’s back with her hand, pleased that Hannah’s holster was, like Tammy’s, empty.

“Thanks…practice helped, my father too.”

“He cooks?”

“No...but he taught me ‘food-Arabic’ so I at least knew what she was saying as she showed me.” She smiled - she’d literally managed to get Tammy’s jaw to drop. “She insisted I learned about Iran and the language together...it’s a good way of learning a language, but I didn’t know what tenderising meat was in English, nevermind any other language.”

“And now?”

“Now what?”

“How many languages do you know ‘tenderising’ in?” Tammy frowned, not expecting her question to cause Hannah to smirk. “Wait, that sounded way dirtier than i meant it to.” She grinned. “Forget about that…” She slid her hand down Hannah’s back to where the empty holster and handcuffs sat. “...why don’t you lie down for a few minutes while you text me what you need to make that Aboo..”

“Abgoosht,”

“Abgoosht?” Tammy’s smile brightened when Hannah nodded. “Text me what you need to make Abgoosht and that other one? Chicken and Pomegranate?”

“Fesenjoon.” Hannah reached behind her and pulled her cellphone out from her back pocket, it fortunately surviving being sat on. She stiffened for a moment when she became consciously aware of her holster, only to relax again when she recognised it was Tammy sliding it and her handcuffs off her belt. As lumpy as the couch was, it would be more comfortable lying down if she wasn’t lying on her holster and cuffs. “Which store are you thinking of?”

“The big one.” 

Tammy stood up so Hannah had the whole couch to herself and could shuffle into the right spot so she could lie down comfortably, well, as comfortably as the lumpy couch permitted. Putting the holster next to the mug by the end of the couch Hannah’s head would end up at, Tammy knelt down on the floor so she could be on a level with her girlfriend once she’d got comfortable. “Naomi and I will go after I’ve picked her up…” She leaned forwards and gently kissed perplexed lips - ‘the big’ grocery store was the one near Naomi’s school, while the ‘small’ one was the one they’d detour to on the way to Hannah’s. “Then we’re going to come back here.” 

She knew spelling out to Hannah that it wasn’t going to work for her to pick up Naomi would not go well, as it would trigger Hannah’s already massive maternal guilt. The reality though, knew Tammy, was that given she was asking Patton to find her a phone number for someone in the Middle East today, that meant she’d want to call it as soon as he found it. Good as Patton was, he wasn’t going to find the number on that timeline without running into some road blocks and questions for Hannah - if there weren’t any, Tammy knew Hannah could have made the request of her team’s tech guys in DC. So that ruled out Hannah disappearing for an hour or so to go pick up Naomi from after school soccer, as those questions would probably not be answerable (assuming they were even askable) on their cells. Given calling at 9pm would be a bit too close to sunrise in the Middle East to be polite, and this sounded like an occasion when even spies remembered their manners, once Patton had the number Hannah would be placing a late night call, that they would all want her to do from the office so Sebastian and Patton could make sure it was safe for her, and by extension, Naomi. All of which Hannah knew - Tammy telling her would not make anything change except the tension in her girlfriend’s shoulders. “Pride’s voted for pizza night.”

“Naomi will be thrilled,” said Hannah quietly, her voice full of sincerity - little by little Naomi had got to know the team and now, much to Ryan’s disgust, she was a semi-regular sight at the field office, with the fridge always containing her favourite apple juice. If the weather was nice and they didn’t have suspects in interrogation, Friday afternoons often saw Naomi getting a head start on her homework in the courtyard. If the weather or suspects made the courtyard not an option, then she was usually in the conference room with homework or a book. And sometimes, usually if it had been a tough week for the New Orleans team but the cases were now finally closed, she’d be in Patton’s space, playing some sort of computer game with him and Sebastian. 

Often the three of them went back to Hannah’s place after the work day was done for the Agents, but if cases kept them late in the office Roy and Naomi became chief planners of ‘Pizza Night’. It also meant they could spend the evening with Hannah as a team still - until Naomi was 18, the Tru Tone was off limits except in the morning before it opened. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.” Tammy leaned in and carefully brushed a kiss onto the tip of her girlfriend’s nose, resisting the urge to brace herself with her arms so she could prolong the kiss. “Text me that list baby…” She kissed Hannah again, this time risking kissing her on the lips, needing the protestations from her neck at the awkward angle to stop herself from trying to match the intensity of their kiss in the courtyard - there would be time for that later.

“Mmm, okay…” Now she was horizontal and away from the ‘hustle’ of the main office, Hannah was finding it harder to ignore the tiredness, which a part of her suspected was a deliberate plan by her girlfriend. On the other hand, a few minutes away from everything NCIS, away from the constant stream of ‘what if’s’ and ‘how about’s’ did feel very appealing.

“...then sneak a nap why dontcha?” Tammy risked leaning in one more time, though this time rather than aim for her girlfriend’s far too kissable lips, she rested her chin on the couch seat and whispered in her ear. “Kinda hoping we could stay up past Naomi’s bedtime.”

“You’ve persuaded me…” sighed Hannah, feeling a small shiver go through her as the wisps of Tammy’s breath tickling her ear reminded parts of her about last night and other nights before that. “...I’ll try and have a nap after I text…”

“Promise?” Tammy pushed herself into a crouch from her kneeling position, preparing to stand.

“Promise…” agreed Hannah, reaching up and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her girlfriend’s ear. “...but my phone’s still on if the guys have any questions…” Anything else she might have wanted to say disappeared in a yawn.

“Work those digits baby…” teased Tammy, standing up to go downstairs again, only to stop when she saw Hannah’s frown. “What?”

“Was that supposed to be...y’know?” 

“Dirty? No! I meant get texting…” Tammy’s frown changed to a rather knowing smile though, her lower lip caught deliberately between her teeth, reminding both of them of their earlier kiss. “...but for  _ that  _ you don’t need any practice Baby…” And, with a wink and a blown kiss, Tammy headed for the main office via the bathroom to splash some water on her face while trying to remember what time Naomi went to bed at the moment…


	13. Chapter 13

“Well Gregorio?”

“Very well Pride, thank you.” From any other agent, that level of sassiness in the reply would have worried Pride, but from Gregorio? It was strangely reassuring.

“How’s Hannah?” asked Sebastian, not having Pride’s self-restraint.

“She’s good…” Tammy’s reply was interrupted by her phone alerting her to a text message which she didn’t need to look at to know was from Hannah, but she did anyway, only for her eyes to widen when she saw that it wasn’t in English. “...er, Sebastian?”

“Yes?”

“Do you have something that can translate stuff from Arabic?”

“I guess…” He looked across at her, seeing how she was frowning at her phone and deciding to head over to her desk. “...but can’t Hannah translate it?”

“It’s from Hannah…” said Tammy, thrusting her phone screen under his nose so he could see three messages, two much longer than the third, written in what did seem to be Arabic. “...she’s tired.”

“So she texts you in Arabic?” Sebastian took Tammy’s phone, correctly interpreting its continued presence in his face as her request that he ‘do his thing’.

“She’s thinking in Arabic and forgetting to translate…” Tammy took her phone back from him after he’d fiddled with it, disappointed to see the messages were still incomprehensible to her.

“May I?” Sebastian gestured to her computer, which she was currently stopping him from working at.

“Sure…” Confused, she stepped back so he could sit in her chair, then grabbed the keyboard and typed in her password so the screen unlocked for him. “...whatchya…”

“Doing? I copied the message text into an email which I saved to your drafts…” He opened up her email on the computer and went to the drafts folder, opening up the saved text. “...and with a couple of clicks….there!” He sat back in Tammy’s desk chair, too chivalrous to read the translated messages before she did, but his confidence was knocked by her expression. “Did it work?”

“What? Oh, sure baby, thanks…” Tammy was studying the translation, muttering to herself that she didn’t know what half the things were. “...er Pride?”

“Yes Gregorio?”

“Can you translate this for me please?”

“I don’t speak Arabic Gregorio,” he reminded her, coming over to her screen nevertheless.

“Didn’t it translate?” Sebastian started to lean in to redo the translation only to be hit in the shoulder by Tammy, which he took to mean that he should keep his hands away from her keyboard.

“No, but you speak cooking.” He looked at her in confusion. “I only speak very specific Sicilian-Italian cooking that starts with my grandmother’s recipes and an already stocked kitchen. This…” She gestured to the screen on which he now saw was a list of...almost ingredients. “...isn’t a shopping list I can follow.”

“What’s the dish?” He picked up her notepad and started writing down the list of literal translations Sebastian’s Arabic translation programme had generated in the way the items were more commonly known as, and most likely to be discoverable as, in a New Orleans store.

“Dishes.” Tammy closed her eyes and tried to remember how to pronounce the proper names. “Abgoosht and Fesenjoon.”

“Sounds exotic.”

“Persian - Hannah’s gonna make ‘em for Naomi this weekend.”

“Ah, then that…” Dwayne went back up his list. “...is probably gonna be in dried foods and called that…” He wrote down a couple more things, then paused. “Where are you shopping?”

“The big store by Naomi’s school after I’ve picked her up - kinda assumed P will have stuff for Hannah by then.”

“Ah…” Dwayne looked at the finished list, then put an asterisk by one of them. “...pretty sure there’s a new jar of that in the kitchen. Best take that and I’ll get some more…”

“Pride, we…”

“No argument.” He tore off the piece of paper and gave it to her, then capped the pen and put it back on her desk. “Just make sure those leftovers come to us on Monday.”

“If there are any…” agreed Tammy, putting the list in her pocket. “Thank you.”

“‘Course.” Pride turned, about to go and see Patton, then paused. “Gregorio?”

“Yes Pride?” She was sat on the edge of her desk, mid glare at Sebastian for still being sat in her desk chair, but her face became a picture of innocence as she looked at Dwayne.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“She’s good, really.” She glanced at Sebastian, including him in her answer, knowing that he would otherwise be far too decent and try not to listen. “She was Naomi’s age when her Mom started to teach her to cook family dishes from Iran...”

“Explains the shopping list…” began Sebastian, still not seeing how that meant a screen full of Arabic text messages.

“...taught her to cook in Arabic.” Tammy shook her head, recalling the one conversation she’d had with Hannah’s mother: having heard her surname from Hannah, had apparently also grilled her on which part of Italy the Gregorio extended family had come from. “Hannah wasn’t joking when she said her parents were disappointed at how few languages she spoke - her Mom now speaks better Sicilian than I do.”

“How many languages does she speak?”

“Isn’t it like twenty-one?” Sebastian saw Pride’s look of surprise. “Wait, you didn’t know?”

“I lost count after a few…” They both looked at Tammy, hoping she’d be able to provide some answers.

“Hannah will say she only speaks six fluently.”

“But is conversational in fifteen others right?” Sebastian and languages didn’t mix well, but maths was one of his strong points, and he definitely remembered the six and fifteen conversation.

“I have no clue.” Tammy saw her best friend’s look of blatant disbelief and rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously, I don’t know all the languages she speaks fluently nevermind anything else…” She thought for a moment, the bookcase in Hannah’s hallway flashing through her mind, reminding her of some of the books she’d spotted and the conversations they’d had in Russian: her frustration at not having completed the Russian course all those years ago channeled into self-study once she’d realised she could use Tammy for conversation practice. “...but I think it’s at least couple more now.”

“Oh?” Pride was no longer Hannah’s boss, so could neither access her staff record or tell her to update her details, so he just had to admit to himself he was curious to know what these two ‘new’ languages were that she’d learned since moving to New Orleans - so far, every time they’d come up against another language in a case he’d worked with her, she’d known enough of it to get them by: as SAC he’d saved a fortune from the translation budget apparently as a result of her, but then he’d barely been SAC long enough to discover that there was a translation budget in the first place.

“Vietnamese...” Tammy could picture the Vietnamese books on the bottom right of the bookcase Hannah kept all her various language books on, in alphabetical order no less. It did mean Tammy was likely to miss a few in the middle of the alphabet, but the end of the alphabet was easier to spot new arrivals in.

“The shrimp processing plant case?” Sebastian couldn’t think of any other cases that had involved the Vietnamese community more recently. “She didn’t speak it then.”

“Yeah… but she does now - there’s a really amazing Vietnamese place near her apartment in DC.” Tammy remembered her surprise when they went there to get dinner one night when she’d been staying there and Hannah had spoken to the owner in their own language. “She goes there once a week for dinner and to practice her pronunciation.” Tammy gave Sebastian another mostly playful shove in an unspoken request for him to let her have her desk back so she could do some work, which was a hint he fortunately, finally took. “No clue what I was eating but it tasted delicious.” 

“I’m sure the company helped.”

“Mmm, they were so impressed she could speak Vietnamese they brought us these little tiny rolls, like egg rolls but with really thin soft dough that you could see through…” Clearly they’d made quite the impression on Tammy.

“Not what I meant Gregorio…” teased Pride, patting her on the shoulder as he headed for Patton’s office to see how he was doing.

“We are so getting Hannah to order from Woons sometime…” sighed Sebastian, following Pride at least as far as the kitchen, wondering what they’d get if they ordered without reading out the list of numbers from the menu. “She’s gotta speak Chinese right?”

“Unbelievable…” grumbled Dwayne, shaking his head at the younger agent. “...you just had gumbo!”

* * *

  
  


“Yo! Pride?” 

“Yes Patton?” While it wasn’t unusual for Patton to call out to him while he was still coming through the courtyard into the squad room, he’d usually arrived by the time Pride had finished saying his name, meaning this time Patton had just yelled from his office.

“Your phone’s about to ring…” yelled out Patton, tapping frantically, trying to work out what he’d just done.

“It is?” Pride appeared in the doorway and pulled out his cell, which was despite Patton’s pronouncement, definitely not ringing yet.

“Yeah…” Patton glanced up at his friend and boss, looking somewhat contrite. “...they’re thinking I’m you.”

“What am ‘I’ doing?” asked Pride, seeing his cell screen light up a split second before it began to ring. “And who are ‘they’?”

“Ordering two slices of Momma’s Peach Pie Special…” said Patton rather randomly, typing rapidly, his expression set in one that Dwayne recognised as ‘go with it man’. “...Momma Dee’s Slice of Somethin’ Nice.”

“Alrighty...but I’m doing this on speaker.” With a final look at his friend that strongly suggested if he was right then he had some explaining to do, and if he was wrong….he had even more explaining to do. “Hello? Is that Momma Dee’s? I’d like to order a coupla’ slices of your peach pie special.”

Patton and Pride waited expectantly for someone to fill the silence which suggested their ‘caller’ was an automated dialing programme that played its message then recorded whatever the speaker replied with. After a long moment, they heard a faint click and then someone with a pleasant, decidedly non-memorable voice spoke. “Your order’s been accepted, thank you for your custom.” And then the line went dead.

“Well?” asked Pride once he’d put his phone away, knowing that there would be nothing saved in his phone’s call list that Patton wouldn’t already have on his computer.

“Was that what I think it was?”

“Depends….do you think it was a Pie Shop?”

“No…”

“Then it probably was what you think it was…” Pride came around the end of the desk so he could see Patton’s screens in case the answer to his next question was more of a ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ moment. “...was that who called Hannah?”

“That was who it’s supposed to look like called Hannah,” corrected Patton, bringing up a screen full of code that would make no sense to Pride so he didn’t even bother trying to read it.

“And the ‘order’ I placed?”

“If Hannah’s files are correct, you should be getting a message about…” Before Patton could say ‘now’, Pride’s phone pinged. “You know, it’s almost spooky how they can do that.”

“Almost?” As Dwayne reached for his phone again, his smile was full of amusement. “I think the CIA would be insulted if they heard you.”

“Nah, this room is clean.” Patton picked up a device on his desk and showed it to Pride. “Swept it myself right before I started on this.”

“Thought you only did that in the mornings.”

“Yeah, but then I got read into Hannah’s thing and given access to a drive full of super-secret spy stuff.” Patton looked at Pride with an expression that, if it were ever photographed, would immediately be captioned ‘do I look stupid?’. “No one ever gives Triple P that much super-secret spy stuff. Makes me suspicious.”

“Of Hannah?” Pride didn’t think Patton was seriously suggesting they had reason not to trust her, but he wanted to make absolutely certain, if only to ensure that whatever doubts the man had he got them out of his system outside of Gregorio’s earshot.

“Hell no!” Patton gave away how offended he was by his good friend’s suggestion by stopping his typing and taking a moment to check his shirt collar and tie knot were still sharp. “I’m suspicious of whoever it is who’s giving our girl the runaround…” He put his hands back on his keyboard and pulled up another file, gesturing with his head for Dwayne to come around and look at it with him. “...have a look at these…”

“What am I looking at?”

“CIA codenames.”

“P…”

“Nu uh, I did not hack the CIA.” He looked up at Dwayne, “didn’t need to, they were in the stuff Hannah gave us. Like I said…” Patton returned to the screen and scrolled through the three pages of names, many of which were crossed through, but a few were not. “...someone’s doing the dirty somewhere. And if I’m right, one of these six names is gonna be in that text message.”

“That’ll disappear after I’ve opened it?”

“Huh?” Patton looked up at Dwayne with decidedly skeptical look on his face. “Jimmy’s got you watching spy films again...this ain’t the movies.” Patton moved his mouse, bringing a different programme screen into focus. “And anyway, even if it was, I’m running a clone of your phone just in case.”

“Of course you are…” Pride gestured for Patton to continue now he was caught up. “...and it was Laurel, not Jimmy....any of them a match?”

“Yeah, this one…” Patton highlighted one of the names that hadn’t been crossed out.

“And that’s a good thing?”

“Generally? No idea...but at least it means whoever really called Hannah wasn’t a dead man.” Patton cross referenced the code name Pride had been texted with another file his new Spruce clearance gave him access to, and finally opened up a third file, causing him to let out a low whistle.

“Not a dead man,” agreed Pride, looking at the details. “Or a spy for that matter.” He put his hand on Patton’s shoulder. “Think you can find her?”

“If anyone can, Triple P can…” It sounded simple, given they now knew who the caller was, but CIA sources who had a number to call when they needed to contact their ‘handler’ were not supposed to be easily redialed, with the entire CIA call handling system designed around protecting both the source and agent’s real identity. What appeared to have gone wrong this time, was that Hannah had received a call from a CIA source that should have long since been redirected to a new Agent...hence the need for Patton’s skills.

“Excellent.” Pride gave Patton’s shoulder a supportive squeeze, then moved away, knowing that now was the time to give the information specialist some time and space. “You on for pizza night?”

“You bet I am.”

“Good.” And, with a final nod that reminded Patton he was only a hollar away, Pride headed back to his desk in the squad room - he had some files to read and a pizza night to organise.


	14. Chapter 14

“Hey, Naomi? Wait up!”

Hearing her name, Naomi turned around and waited for her friend from the soccer team to catch up.

“What’s up?”

“My age, in a coupla weeks. I’m having a Laser Tag party.” Bree, taller by an inch and older by a year, handed over a piece of paper. “Mom made me do old school invites, I was gonna message you.”

“That’s cool…” Naomi took the party invite with a smile. “...parents can be weird.”

“Yeah. Though yours seem really cool after practice on Wednesday.”

“That was just Dad’s girlfriend…” Naomi put the invite in her school blazer pocket and continued walking down the corridor to the exit with her friend. “...not my Mom.”

“My bad.” Bree looked sideways at her friend to see how badly she’d upset her, surprised by the completely expressionless face. “They split a long time ago?”

“It’s complicated - Mom’s job kept her overseas when Dad moved here and I came with him.”

“You moved with your Dad?” Bree found that hard to fathom. “My Dad split from us when I was a little kid - can’t imagine going with him not Mom.”

“Dad’s a Professor, Mom’s…” Naomi pushed open the corridor door, buying her the necessary minute to remember what she was supposed to say according to her Dad, before deciding to stick with what her Mom had told her was okay to say. “...she kinda works for the Navy....”

“Like a Sailor?”

“No. She’s really good at languages so she would go translate and stuff. But she stopped doing that a couple of years ago and lives here too now.” She hitched her backpack into a more comfortable position on her shoulder. “She works for NCIS.”

“They do translation or something?”

“Naval Criminal Investigative Service…” Naomi saw Bree’s blank look and remembered Tammy describing it as the ‘never heard of us’ face that she’d taken a minute to adjust to once she’d left the FBI. “...rude people call them Navy Cops, but she’s a Federal Agent.”

“Cool…” Bree pushed open the final door and stepped out into the small bit of yard between the school buildings and the sidewalk, seeing a dark haired woman with what looked like a gold badge on her belt wave at Naomi. “...she looks way more like I’d thought your Mom would look now I think about it…” teased Bree, nudging her friend with her elbow. 

“Huh?” It took Naomi a minute to realise that Bree had seen Tammy waiting for her and get the wrong idea. “Oh, she’s not my Mom…” Naomi waved at Tammy. “...she’s my Mom’s girlfriend.”

“Awesome…” decided Bree with the easy acceptance of a child of the 21st century, smiling as she saw the woman return Naomi’s wave, not breaking into a run to keep pace with her friend. “...see you at the match on Sunday,” she yelled, waving.

“Sure thing…” Naomi slowed back to a walk now she was only a few paces from Tammy, and turned back to her friend. “....Mom will be there.”

“Promise?” teased Bree, curious now to meet her younger friend’s Mom as she caught up with Naomi again.

“Promise.” Naomi shifted her backpack again and went up to Tammy, hoping she hadn’t just made a promise she couldn’t keep.

  
  


* * *

“Tammy!” Naomi wrapped the New Yorker in a tight hug, automatically aiming ‘high’ with her arms like she did with her Mom so she wrapped her arms around the agent’s ribs and avoided the holstered gun and handcuffs at her waist. 

“Hi Sweetheart.” 

Given she usually called everyone in her life for more than a week ‘baby’ at least twice a day, it had been a bit surprising to Hannah when she’d first realised that Tammy wasn’t calling Naomi ‘baby’. At first, Tammy had avoided all nicknames, not wanting to alienate Naomi by trying too hard too fast, then, after she’d had dinner a couple of times with Naomi and Hannah, she’d carefully begun to experiment. ‘Short stuff’ had become something of an ‘in joke’ between them, as Naomi was only slightly shorter than Tammy if she stood on tiptoes and definitely taller than her if she jumped....which had ended up with a glass falling off the top shelf in the kitchen cupboard and Hannah trying really hard to be cross with both of them. ‘Princess’ was avoided after a quiet tip off from Hannah that it had been Liam’s favoured nickname, while ‘Honey’ and ‘Patatina’ from Tammy’s own childhood were off limits because she felt like one of her weird Aunts. Plus, she couldn’t call Hannah’s kid a ‘little potato’ in any language. As for ‘baby’... as far as Tammy was concerned, that was Hannah’s, and only Hannah’s...and she was cool with that.

“Hi…” Naomi let go of Tammy and set off to wherever she’d parked.

“What’s up?” Tammy didn’t need her profiling experience to know something was on Naomi’s mind - usually she’d launch into a rapid stream of updates about her life that she felt Tammy needed to know mixed into plenty of questions about Hannah. The silence was therefore highly suspicious, especially considering, “...and what’s with the extra squeezy?” Tammy draped her arm loosely over the girl’s shoulders. “You’re gonna show up Sebastian with hugs like that!” she teased, keeping half an eye on the girl that Naomi had been talking to as she walked up the street, in case she turned out to be the problem.

“Bree’s invited me to her birthday party…” Naomi pulled the invite out of her pocket and gave it to Tammy to look at as they walked down the sidewalk.

“The girl you were just talking to?”

“She’s on the soccer team, in the year above me.” Naomi looked at Tammy, wanting to make sure she understood. “She’s really nice, we’re friends.”

“Okay…” Tammy reached in her jacket pocket and pulled out the car remote, unlocking the SUV. She was fairly certain Naomi knew, without her needing to say it, that just because Ryan tolerated her picking Naomi up from school occasionally didn’t mean she was in a position to agree to her going to an older girl’s birthday party. That was definitely a Hannah question. So she looked at the invite again while she waited for a break in the traffic so she could walk around to the driver’s side. “...they still have Laser Tag? Cool.” She looked up and saw the frowny face that she’d come to know as Naomi’s worried look as she got in the SUV. “Not cool.” She saw a break in the traffic and jogged around to get in the car herself, trying to spot what the problem was based on what she could remember of her couple of experiences of Laser Tag as a kid. It had been fairly harmless, lots of running around avoiding the handsy boys and trying to shoot people in the dark ….oh.

Zelko.

Of course.

“So this Bree is a friend and you want to go to her party?” Tammy put her seatbelt on as she asked the question rather than focussing on Naomi. 

“Yeah…” Naomi had already got her backpack stuffed down in the footwell in front of her feet and began pulling her seatbelt across.

“But you’re not sure about the Laser Tag?”

“Yeah…” Compared to her reply, the click of her seatbelt was loud in the car.

“And you don’t wanna say yes because of what the party is, but you don’t wanna say no ‘cos she’s your friend?” Tammy turned on the ignition and appeared to be wholly focussed on waiting for a break in the traffic, though she was actually paying very close attention, knowing that Naomi had mostly managed to put the events associated with Zelko’s vendetta against Hannah behind her...all except a perfectly understandable aversion to being on her own in strange places and a thorough dislike of being surprised from the shadows. 

“Yeah.”

“Huh.” Taking a moment to pull out into the traffic, only to then have to immediately pull up at a red light on the intersection, Tammy looked across at Naomi, who looked back at her with a worried frown, clearly muddled by the whole situation Tammy suspected she also didn’t want to mention her worries to her Dad because he’d just go off on one at Hannah about it, which Naomi was starting to get wise to and not liking her Dad for. “When’s the party?”

Much of Ryan’s problem, Tammy knew, was that for all his ‘good Dad’ skills at looking after Naomi on his own while Hannah was still in Oman, and as much as he sort of blamed Hannah for the dangerous situations Naomi had ended up in, to Naomi, Hannah was her action hero and fairytale heroine all in one.

“Next month sometime…” Naomi couldn't remember the exact date and the invite was still in Tammy’s pocket.

“You know…” began Tammy, pulling forwards as the light turned green. “...I’m pretty sure Sebastian had his own laser tag gun when he was a kid...probably still has it now I bet.” The lights, not in their favour today, would normally have Tammy sighing and wishing she could put the lights and siren on, but not today, as this next red light gave her another opportunity to look at Naomi. “We could ask your Mom if we could all go to the Laser Tag place and have a game? You could try it with your Mom right there with you?” She had no idea if Sebastian’s nerdness extended to Laser Tag, but was confident he’d play the part if needed, as he was just as sweet on Naomi as the rest of the team were.

“You mean you and Sebastian against Mom and me?” Naomi chewed on her lip, unknowingly perfectly mimicking her mother’s evidence reviewing face as the light turned green.

“If you like.” Tammy hadn’t actually thought about the mechanics of how they’d ‘play’, instead just thinking that Naomi could have some time in the Laser Tag venue with all the lasers and the darkness, understanding what was there. “Maybe find the really great spots to make your base.”

“Like a sniper’s nest?” asked Naomi, remembering the games she’d play with her Mom where she looked for good hiding spots and the places to be wary of.

“More like good cover sweetheart, not sure there are Laser Tag snipers.” Tammy didn’t bother hiding her grin at the idea though, Naomi sure was Hannah’s daughter, thinking more about field tactics rather than make out spots...though both should be fairly unlikely when a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls were playing. But since Naomi had brought it up, now she thought about it, lasers shoot straight, so in theory she guessed she’d probably have quite a good range with one of them if there was a decent spot with a large enough field of fire….but that was not the point. “The important thing would be to see if you liked it or not.”

“I thought you were going to tell me that if she’s my friend she’d understand if I had a ‘moment’.” ‘Moment’ was what Naomi called her infrequent flashbacks and panic attacks, which fortunately she rarely had thanks to the help of a great counselor, her parents and her Mom’s friends like Sebastian, Tammy, Pride, Jimmy and Dr Wade. “That’s what Dad would say.”

“What I was gonna then say was you could talk to your friend once you knew how you felt about Laser Tag. If she’s your friend, she’ll understand if you decide you aren’t comfortable doing Laser Tag, but she’d also understand if you decide you want to go to the party but might still have a ‘moment’.” Tammy left the comment about Ryan alone, but made a mental note to mention it to Hannah later.

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then you work out if it’s because she doesn’t understand or because she’s mean.” Tammy lifted her foot off the gas so they missed the green light, enabling her to look at Naomi with a sly grin. “And if she’s mean, well, she ain’t worth it sweetheart.” And if she didn’t understand, well, that wouldn’t be such a surprise either, as what Naomi had had to deal with was tough for anyone to understand. “And if she doesn’t understand, we’d help you explain it a bit more if you wanted to.”

“Bree’s not mean, she’s kind, and super smart…” Looking out the window, Naomi recognised the route they were taking meant they were going to the grocery store. The more she thought about it, the more she liked Tammy’s suggestion - she’d be alright trying Laser Tag if her Mom was there with her, and Sebastian and Tammy wouldn’t be bothered if she did have a ‘moment’. And if she did, well, Bree was smart so she’d understand. “We going to the store?”

“Your Mom gave me a list.” Tammy accepted the subject change without protesting, suspecting that she’d given Naomi enough for her to think on positively rather than just be stuck in a worrying loop - she was like her Mom in that. Naomi would raise it with Hannah when she was ready, probably when they got to Hannah’s tonight if Naomi stuck to her ‘pattern’.

“A ‘there must be fruit and vegetables at every meal’ list or a ‘Mom’s cooking amazing things’ list?” 

“Here…” Tammy pulled the shopping list Pride had written down for her out of her pocket, along with the party invitation, and passed them across to Naomi before then indicating and changing lanes.

“This isn’t her handwriting.”

“It’s Pride’s…” Tammy took the exit they needed. “I needed some help with your Mom’s list of ingredients.”

“She’s cooking?” asked Naomi, excited. Her Mom cooking meant she’d get to help, and that usually also meant stories about her grandparents and her Mom’s life, which Naomi loved. It also meant confusing Tammy, who was a perfectly respectable maker of food in a kitchen, as some of the ingredients in Hannah’s cooking were rarely involved in Italian or everyday American dishes. Naomi was fairly certain her Mom picked the dishes she cooked precisely because of being able to confuse Tammy with new spices and flavours, but wasn’t yet prepared to think about the mechanics of dating and flirting, least of all her Mom doing it.

“She’s cooking,” confirmed Tammy, pulling into the grocery store’s parking lot. “But tonight we’re having pizza.”

“At NCIS?” asked Naomi, trying not to sound too excited at the idea, knowing that part of the reason why they might end up having pizza at the NCIS offices was because her Mom was having to work late, which wasn’t that great for her Mom. As much as Naomi loved spending time with just her Mom (and Tammy - she no longer counted as an extra person as far as Naomi was concerned because she being around didn’t make her Mom behave like  _ Hannah  _ rather than Naomi’s Mom), she really liked her Mom’s friends and they were fun to spend time with. It was really nice that they’d all said they’d come to her soccer match, but watching her play soccer wasn’t the same as getting to spend time with them. Plus the pizza was soooooo good because they got it from a place that only did take out for them because the owner was a good friend of Pride’s and somewhat competitive when it came to getting approval from a fellow Sicilian like Tammy.

“You okay with that?” Tammy parked the SUV in a good spot not too far from the entrance and switched off the engine. “Oh, and I checked - your Mom’s not going back to DC until Monday morning, so she’s gonna be at the match.” 

“Awesome.” Much to her parents’ relief, Naomi hadn’t yet adopted too much ‘teen-speak’, so they didn’t need a dictionary to translate her responses to their questions...yet. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Which bit? And no,” asked Tammy, waiting while Naomi pulled her backpack into her lap then pushed it between the front seats and tossed it onto the back seat, not wanting to take it around the store with her. Technically it wasn’t a lie, as Hannah had asked.

“All of it.” As an afterthought, Naomi took off her school blazer as well, tossing it onto the back seat as well. “Shotgun on the shopping cart.”

“Hey!” Tammy opened the door and got out of the SUV, heading around the front of the car to meet up with Naomi. “I’m the one with the driving licence….”

“Which means you get to drive the car, so I get to drive the cart…” teased Naomi, skipping ahead of Tammy to get the cart, their exchanges following the same pattern every time they came shopping together.

“Alright already…” Conceding defeat, Tammy made a show of letting Naomi take the lead with the cart. “...but give me the list will ya?” Naomi handed over the shopping list, a big grin on her face.

“What?” Normally, Naomi put up some token resistance to surrendering the shopping list if she’d entered the store holding it, which made Tammy suspicious.

“His handwriting is worse than Mrs Corbough’s.” That teacher’s handwriting was legendary at school, and Naomi was just glad she didn’t have her this year.

“Good to know I’m useful…” mock groused Tammy, taking the list and looking at it - sure, Dwayne’s handwriting wasn’t the neatest, but compared to some of the agents she’d worked with, it was as clear as newsprint. “...you want to see if this store’s got any pomegranates?”


	15. Chapter 15

“...and I just don’t understand why that would be there.” Sebastian folded his arms and looked nervously at Hannah, wondering if he’d just made a mountain out of nothing, watching her as she studied the photos and results he’d put up on the main screens.

“Huh.” Hannah stood up and moved towards the centre of the room so she could look at the screens properly without twisting her neck so much. She was feeling much more alert and awake after her nap, but the couch was definitely lumpy and she’d fallen asleep with her head at a weird angle against the armrest, so while the rest of her felt better, her neck had other ideas. Giving the sore bit a discrete rub, she just about managed to tamp down the smile her stray thought about persuading Tammy to give her a neck rub later generated, rationalising it was her girlfriend’s fault she had the stiff neck in the first place. “I have no idea either...” She looked at the second screen, which showed her ASAC in DC who she’d called to join the discussion when Sebastian had said he’d found something. “Tom?”

“I guess we need to start working out where it came from…” He was still struggling to wrap his head around what Agent Lund had found after such a short period of time, with it not only an impressive confirmation of the New Orleans’ Agent’s skills, but was triggering further questions about what else they had been helped to not see when their own analysts had reviewed the evidence.

“And who helped us not see it,” added Hannah, trying to remember which particular Agency had provided the intelligence for this element of last night’s raids.

“Triple P has you covered there…” announced Patton, wheeling himself into the main office.

“Patton Plame, meet Tom Bassiter, my ASAC in DC.” Hannah gestured between the two men, knowing she didn’t need to explain what Patton’s skill set was to Tom as he’d seen the team’s details.

“Yo.” Patton raised a hand in acknowledgment to the new face in DC, then took the screen controller from Sebastian, switching the screens so they could see what he’d uncovered. “That’s how it got there...”

“That’s impossible,” said Tom, recognising the ship in the satellite image Patton was showing. “We’d only finished searching that ship six hours earlier and one hundred miles up the coast. There’s no way it could have got there, its registry details...”

“...are fake.” Patton brought up a different satellite image, showing a similar vessel transmitting the same name and radio identification. “That’s the real Shimbalha.”

“So what’s our Shimbalha really registered as?” asked Hannah, trying to work out which bit of coast the real Ursuline was sailing off. “And where’s the real one?”

“The real one is going in and out of Do…” Patton checked his notes. “...Doraleh.”

“Dor-where?” asked Sebastian, frowning at the new name.

“Doraleh, Djibouti. On the Gulf of Tadjoura,” said Hannah automatically, suddenly placing the satellite photo. “I recognise the coastline now.” She angled her head and orientated herself. “The Red Sea is to the North, the Gulf of Aden to the East.” She looked at Patton thoughtfully, unaware she was causing all four of them, Pride included, to look at her in amazement at how familiar she was with the region. “Quite clever really, to pick a vessel from there - similar styles and slow engines, then put in more powerful ones…” Their expressions finally registered with her. “...what?” She ran her hand through her hair, thinking maybe she still had the couch version of ‘bed head’ or something.

* * *

“How’s it going Roy?” asked Tammy, getting out of the SUV after she’d finished parking it up, the experienced uniformed agent who kept an eye on things for them knowing her real question was whether it was alright for Naomi to head on into the main office without the team getting advance warning.

“All good Agent Gregorio.” He glanced over his shoulder through the ever open doors, and shook his head slightly. “Think they could do with a break actually.”

“Oh?” Tammy knew that only an idiot underestimated Roy’s ability to know what was going on in the field office, or what was going on amongst the agents themselves.

“I’d say at least two cases of super-spy crush, though Agent Pride is pretty good at hiding his and I’m not sure about the guy on the screen.” He tried to remember who that was, but couldn’t remember hearing the name. “Works for Agent Khoury in DC I think?”

“Oh, looks a bit like a bald Patton?” Roy glanced over his shoulder again and smiled, then nodded that yes, the guy on the screen did look a bit like Mr Plume might if he had no hair. “That’s ASAC Tom Bassister.”

“They seem to have forgotten that the coastlines of the Middle East are as familiar to Special Agent Khoury as the Bayou round here are to Special Agent Pride.”

“Remind me to never take you on in a bet Roy…” teased Tammy, marvelling at his sharpness, giving him a wink. “Hey Sweetheart?” she called out, knowing Naomi had gone to sort through the groceries to put everything that needed to go in the fridge into one or two bags. Not only was it a necessary activity, but it did provide the important buffer for Tammy to determine whether or not the squad room was Naomi-friendly, with none of them eager to increase the amount of violence the girl had already been exposed to in her life.

“Yes Tammy?”

“Leave the groceries, think the guys need reminding your Mom’s your Mom.”

It wasn’t a suggestion Tammy needed to make twice, as a few seconds later there was a brief puff of air as Naomi ran straight by her with a quick ‘hi Roy’ and into the squad room.

* * *

“MOM!”

As quick as she was, Hannah barely had enough time to spin around in the direction of the shout before she was hit with the weight of a racing Naomi rushing to hug her.

“Baby…” Hannah wrapped her daughter in a tight hug, relieved as she always was each week she could still rest her chin on top of her daughter’s head - height had become synonymous with lost time and missed years.

“I made the starting eleven!” 

“You did?” Hannah let up on the hug just enough so she could fully experience Naomi’s delight at the news, and let Naomi see how proud she was.

It was a good job that Naomi’s focus was completely on her mother at that point, as while Hannah’s ability to look genuinely surprised by the news was completely convincing, Sebastian and Patton couldn’t contain their surprise at her skills, which in turn gave Dwayne away as he sent them warning looks reminding them to stay silent so they didn’t ruin Naomi’s moment with her Mom.

“That’s awesome baby, when’s the match?”

“Sunday afternoon....” It was Naomi’s turn to show that there was, perhaps, an element of genetic inheritance when it came to spycraft. “...are you going back to Washington that afternoon?”

“No baby…” Hannah’s smile, if it was possible, grew brighter. “I’m on the Monday Redeye.”

“So you’ll come watch?”

“You bet I will…” Hannah pulled Naomi back into another tight hug, one that was returned with, as Tammy had put it, a good dose of ‘extra squeezy’, before she finally let go, conscious she had interrupted her Mom from talking about work.

“Hey guys…” she said, peeking around Hannah’s arm to smile at Dwayne, Patton and Sebastian who replied with an assortment of ‘heys’ and waves. “...oh, sorry…” Naomi pulled back from the hug, suddenly nervously shy.

“Mmm?” Hannah, her back to the screens, had forgotten that Tom Bassister was with them still. “Oh, Tom?” Hannah twisted back around to the screen, gently coaxing Naomi to emerge from where she’d managed to tuck herself behind and underneath her arm. “This is my daughter Naomi…” She shifted her arm so she was giving Naomi a one armed hug around the shoulders, knowing meeting new people wasn’t her daughter’s favourite thing, especially if they were bald like Tom was. Even Roy had spooked her initially, though they were now fast friends, which gave Hannah further confidence that her memories of Zelko were fading and not repressed, just like the counsellor and Pride had predicted from their own different experience. “...Tom is another Agent I work with in Washington baby.”

“Hello…” Naomi’s hello was accompanied with a little wave that bore a remarkable similarity to Agent Lund’s, thought Tom, but unlike with Sebastian, he returned the wave as he said hello, picking up that there was something about him that made the girl more wary than just another new face. “Congratulations on making the starting line up, your Mom said you play soccer?”

“Yes Sir…” Naomi’s shock that he knew about her soccer was plain for everyone to see, causing Tom to chuckle while also noticing how she shrank into the comfort of her Mom’s side at the same time.

“She’s really proud of you, I’m glad to finally meet you. Good luck with the game. Will you give me a match report on Monday Hannah?”

“Depends, will you get the really good pastries?” asked Hannah, rubbing Naomi’s back in reassurance while silently sending a telepathic ‘thank you’ to her ASAC for picking up on Naomi’s nerves and not making a big thing of it.

“If I must…” he grumbled good naturedly, patting his rather too flabby for his liking stomach, a gesture that wasn’t all that clear on the screen, but he knew his boss knew what he was doing - it was a bit of a joke between them now, with him trying to get a bit more active again so he lost a few pounds, while at the same time trying to remind Hannah to sit down and remember that she could send other Agents dashing around the place, a habitual forgetfulness she shared with Pride.

“I’m sorry Mom…” whispered Naomi, starting to go shy again.

“What for baby?” asked Hannah, sufficiently concerned that she crouched down so she could look her surprisingly troubled looking daughter in the eye, vaguely aware of Pride, Patton and Sebastian shifting into ‘protective hover’ mode, ready to go deal with whatever had upset Naomi. At twelve years old, she had moments when she was definitely a teenager-in-waiting, while at other times, she was still, rightly, in the middle of her childhood.

“I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with your boss.”

“Huh?” Hannah wasn’t following her daughter’s logic until she saw her eyes slide towards the screens. “Oh, baby…” Trying not to laugh at her daughter’s total misunderstanding, she hugged her tight again, understanding now. “Tom’s not my Boss, he’s just teasing me,” she explained, feeling Naomi’s arms tighten around her then relax when her words sunk in.

“But Washington…” began Naomi, pulling back from the hug now she was just confused and not upset, in turn confusing Hannah.

“Washington is where NCIS Headquarters is Naomi,” began Pride, having a pretty good idea what was muddling up Naomi’s thinking - Laurel had been similarly muddled when she was younger too. “And where lots of your Mom’s bosses have worked when she was overseas I think?” He saw Hannah’s nod, telling him he was on the right track - Naomi had grown up hearing her and Ryan reference ‘Washington’ or ‘DC’ as the initiator of house moves or Hannah suddenly being away a lot. “But it’s also where some special teams are based, because it’s where lots of other people we work with are.”

“Like the CIA and NSA?”

Tom and Patton coughed at Naomi’s choice of examples of ‘people we work with’, and Hannah was fairly certain she heard Sebastian’s gulp.

“She’s your daughter baby…” teased Tammy, coming in from the kitchen after putting the food in the fridge, just in time to hear Naomi’s question and waving to Tom. “...Naomi sweetheart, you’re probably better saying FBI next time.”

“Oh, okay…” Naomi accepted Tammy’s advice with a good natured smile, knowing that she’d answer her questions later if she wanted to ask any, then looked back at Pride, waiting for him to continue his explanation. However it was Hannah that now picked up the story, realising that she’d perhaps, in trying to keep Naomi from being too aware of her job, had instead not explained her job in as much detail as Naomi needed.

“Do you remember how my ID now says ‘Special Agent in Charge’ on it?”

“Yes...that’s what Agent Pride was when you moved here?”

“I sure was Naomi, but there’s a few of them in NCIS, and some are more special than others.”

“Dwayne…” Hannah tried to send him a pleading look to not make a big deal out of what her job was, her tendency being to downplay her job to protect Naomi from Ryan’s passive aggressive loathing of her work, which wasn’t always easy for Naomi to see as being different to loathing Hannah (though he was getting pretty close to hating her Hannah thought).

“What your Mom isn’t telling you, because she’s modest, is that she’s Special Agent in Charge of a special team that works all the time in Washington, and Tom there…” Dwayne gestured to the screen where Agent Bassiter waved again, relieved when this time he received a less nervous wave back from Naomi. “...is what’s called the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, and he works for your Mom, helping to keep things going the way they need to, which includes her being able to come down to New Orleans each weekend to see you.” 

Now was not the moment to complicate the explanation with how unusual it was for such an arrangement to be accepted in their line of work (federal law enforcement hadn’t really mastered working from home, though it was all over ‘flexible working’ as long as that meant being flexible enough to drop everything for work), nor how Zelko being able to get as close to Naomi as he had done had been a major bargaining chip when it came to Hannah negotiating her terms when she considered the job in the first place.

“Your Mom’s my boss Naomi, and you never need to apologise for interrupting me talking to her when you want to say hi.”

“Thank you.” Naomi smiled less nervously now at him, then gave her Mom a final, brief hug. “Can I go do my homework outside?”

“Sure baby.”

“Cool, thanks Mom.”

“Your backpack’s in the kitchen sweetheart,” added Tammy, who’d brought it in for Naomi when she’d put the groceries that needed to go in the fridge away.

“Thanks Tammy. Good luck with the bad guys.” And, with a bright, toothy grin and a wave, Naomi headed to the kitchen to collect her backpack and maybe get some juice.

“Right…” began Hannah after a beat, grateful for the few moments with Naomi but now also rather conscious that it was getting late in DC for Tom and Patton had been in the middle of explaining about their duplicate ship. “...you were about to tell me what our fake Shimbalha’s really called and how we didn’t know it was a fake?”

“Err…” Patton and Sebastiian looked at each other, not sure how to answer her questions just yet, having not got as far as working out how to work out what it’s proper identity was, just where the original one was.

“Agent Asshole Afloat can tell you what it’s really called,” said Tammy, going back to her desk and picking up the file she’d been studying right up until she went to pick up Naomi.

“Is that your official profile Gregorio?” asked Pride dryly, certain her description was bang on the money, but not sure it was necessarily the best way to refer to their still current colleague.

“No, because that would be Dirty Agent Asshole Afloat.” She smiled her thanks at Patton when he switched the screen over so they could see what she’d been looking at, which included his bank records with half a dozen transactions highlighted and some photographs of a surprisingly sophisticated marine GPS system that conveniently always had the corner of the screen showing the vessel registration nicely in focus. “See how he’s careful to get the vessel name in the log photos?”

“Yeah, claiming it’s the Shimbalha…” said Sebastian, wandering closer to the screen and nudging his glasses back up his nose. “Which we know is a spoofed name now.”

“Right, but that system means he was on the bridge, where he caught up with his best buddy the Captain…” Tammy took the remote from Patton and switched the screen’s focus to some photos that were clearly showing the Agent and Captain having enthusiastic handshakes and hugs. “...right in front of the ship in port…” pointed out Tammy, showing one photo that had been on the Agent’s cell yet seemed to be taken by someone else, suggesting he’d maybe received it in a messaging app. “....every time he also gets a nice chunk in his bank account.”

“Think you can enhance that photo Sebastian?” asked Pride, trying to pinpoint what was feeling off to him about that photograph.

“What am I looking for?” 

“The original ship’s name,” said Tammy, going to join Pride in closer scrutiny of the screen. “I think it’s painted out underneath the fake name.”

“Boat like that? The name should be raised metal, not paint…” said Dwayne, finally putting his finger on what wasn’t right. “Can you find it?”

“Don’t see why not…” Sebastian looked back at Tammy. “You got any more of those photos?”

“P?”

“Working on it…”

As Tammy, Patton and Sebastian started to work on putting this next jigsaw together, Tom looked to Hannah, not quite sure where to start - they’d been tracking this ship for a couple of weeks now and no one in DC had guessed it was a fake.

“I…”

“Don’t worry about it Tom,” said Hannah easily, knowing that only Pride was paying any attention to their conversation. “It’s why they’re read in.”

“But we missed it.”

“No you didn’t,” corrected Pride, used to people struggling with how his team managed to do what they did. “You finding the haystack made it a hell of a lot easier for us to find the needle for you.”

“Speaking of haystacks, how’s finding that number going?”

“Patton’s got it for you, though he needs to you to help him set up how you want the call to look...” Finding the original satellite phone that had made the call that Hannah ultimately received hadn’t been too difficult for Patton once he knew roughly where in the world to look, as the contact’s file had given him all he needed to isolate the connection with the satellite...but finding the number that they needed to dial in order to reach the same phone? That had needed some ‘Triple P’ Magic that Pride had long ago stopped trying to understand, given the CIA’s ability to make it ‘disappear’. But now they’d found the number, Hannah could call it, just probably not so it showed up to the receiver as her direct cell number or one with a New Orleans area code.

“Got him!” declared Sebastian, pushing lots of photographs up onto the second screen as Patton continued to work on sifting through them.

“Sneaky son of a…” began Tammy, starting to see the pattern emerge. “...it’s just like that gang the kid was Mateo caught up with...the…” Tammy bit her lip and scrunched her nose in concentration as she tried to remember the elusive gang name.

“Oh, the…” Sebastian snapped his mouth shut when he saw her raise her finger and shake it at him, not finding his thinking aloud rambling helpful.

“Aztec Kings.”

“Yeah.” Tammy’s face relaxed and she smiled at Hannah.

“Why does she not get the wavy finger?” protested Sebastian indignantly, earning an eye roll from Tammy in the process - like she would get cross with her girlfriend for knowing the answer, though she’d never got cross with Hannah when she’d been the SSA either.

“Maybe because she’s the boss Sebastian,” reminded Pride with gentle amusement.

“Aztec Kings?” Tom knew the name, but hadn’t ever dealt with them. “Aren’t they Mexico?”

“Guatemala,” corrected Hannah automatically, studying the pictures now covering the screens, leaving Pride and the others to continue the story.

“Yeah, we had a case involving them a while back,” explained Pride, looking at the assortment of social media posts Patton was still sifting and sorting. “...but I’m guessing Gregorio’s idea is that, whoever is pulling the strings here, is sending messages to the players using social media?” He looked to Hannah to see if she wanted to add anything, but noticing she was still studying the photos, returned his attention to Tom and continued the explanation. “The Aztec Kings used things like ‘Happy Birthday’ to tell their people to go pick up a delivery.”

“So there’s a message in the photos?”

“Maybe…” It was Sebastian who now stood close to the screen, looking intently at something. “...but I think...no, there.”

It took Hannah and Pride a second to realise Sebastian was actually talking to Patton, who had been rearranging images on the screen.

“What do you see Sebastian?” asked Hannah, abandoning her leaning on the desk edge position and walking over to him.

“There, the likes and hearts.” He rubbed his beard with his fingers then looked at her with a baffled expression. “Who ‘hearts’ a picture of an old fishing boat?”

Hannah shrugged, not knowing how to answer.

“P?”

“With you man…” Patton spun his wheelchair round and started to head back to his office with Sebastian, their minds already turned to this new puzzle to crack, with the photographs, the messages and the interactions all combining in something that looked suspiciously non-random.

“Find me the money guy?” called out Tammy as they left, already heading back to her desk to review everything she knew about the Agent Afloat, grinning when she heard Sebastian’s faint ‘yeah yeah’ acknowledgment that yes, they’d work that out too.

After a beat or two of silence in the squad room, the faint sound of a trumpet from one of the nearby bars playing to the very early crowd was just audible through the open doors, further adding to Tom’s feeling that he was looking into a parallel universe.

“That…” He exhaled, not actually sure what to say about what he’d just watched.

“...is why they’re read in Tom.” Hannah looked around the squad room, hearing the riff of the trumpet in the background and the ripple of applause in appreciation at the end of a solo, taking in the unique architecture that meant this could only ever be the New Orleans office. “Given the right haystack, they’ll get us the needle.”

“How many haystacks you got?” asked Dwayne, not having thought about the broader scope of the task force until then.

“Plenty to keep us busy,” said Tom, his attention caught by a message ping and the email alert on his screen. “We’ve found that ship.”

“Excellent.” Dwayne looked at Hannah in confusion, thinking that if Patton and Sebastian had solved the mystery of the Shimbahla they’d have come through and told them, rather than email DC.

“Different ship Dwayne.”

“Different haystack?”

“Something like that…” Hannah smiled at him to say ‘I’ll explain another time’, conscious that it was getting late in DC for a Friday night and, while some elements of the investigation needed to happen quickly, this was ultimately a marathon not a sprint. “What’s the Master Chief say?”

“It’s unable to make land so he’s looking at Open Water scenarios for you for Monday morning.”

“Monday it is then. Anything else?”

“I’m to remind you it’s the end of the month and you’ve got to sign off all the overtime and expenses.”

“Ah.” Hannah looked back at her desk where her laptop had been charging for a good couple of hours now. “And?” She could read him well enough now to know there was something else in her inbox that he knew about and didn’t think she’d enjoy too much.

“Lt Shah passed her physical so has been reassigned back to her ship.”

“Damn it.” That meant Hannah was their only multiple dialects of Arabic speaker again, something that the various agencies involved didn’t see as a problem, since all their intelligence was being handed over after already being translated, but Hannah preferred to be able to review the direct intelligence rather than second hand interpretations. “Great for Jesse, but damn it.” She ran her hand through her hair and took a deep breathe. “Tell me you’ve got a plan?”

“Not me Boss, but someone likes us…” He risked a smile, knowing his news was going to find favour. “As we speak Agent Namazi is transferring to us. She’ll be set up with a desk by Monday.” The OSP Agent had spent a few weeks with them as just after Hannah had taken over, but they’d lost her to another OSP case. But clearly someone, somewhere, probably called Henrietta Lange, decided to give them a break.

“For that…” declared Hannah, looking at her ASAC with a grin. “...I’ll bring beignets.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Hey…” Tammy put aside her book, a slow smile growing as she looked at Hannah. “...what?” Uncomfortable under the scrutiny, Tammy looked down at her front, then looked back up at her girlfriend. “Don’t tell me I’ve got tomato on my face?”

“No.” Hannah wrapped her arms across her front and leaned against the doorframe, her right foot resting on top of her left. “And your shirt’s alright too,” she added, anticipating Tammy’s next doubtful moment.

“O...kay…” Tammy was starting to fidget in the chair, not sure that was happening.

“I…” Hannah’s next words caught in her throat, a ball of emotion forming from seemingly nowhere.

“Baby…” Tammy was on her feet and had cross the room to stand in front of Hannah in a second, her hand held millimetres from her girlfriend’s shoulder, wanting to pull her into a hug and ask what she could do to make whatever it was right, but something kept her still, an instinct that told her to give Hannah another moment.

“I’m fine,” gulped Hannah, raising a hand to her face, her head tipping forwards just enough that her knuckles rested against her nose and upper lip, like she was trying not to cry. “Really…”

“Just because you’re beautiful doesn’t mean crying’s a look I like seeing on you…” teased Tammy gently, compromising on her conflicting need to hold Hannah tight but also see her face by resting a hand carefully on her hip and starting to gently make small circles with the pad of her thumb.

“How did I get so lucky?” asked Hannah quietly, her hand moving from her face to Tammy’s, using one finger to lift away some stray strands of silky brown hair and tuck them behind her ear.

“With Naomi? No luck, all you baby.”

“I meant you.”

“Me?” Tammy’s thumb stilled in surprise, not expecting that. “What’d I do?”

“Be brilliant.” Hannah still had her hand in Tammy’s hair, and she now used it to gently guide their mouths together, enabling her to gently kiss her still very confused girlfriend. “She told me about her friend’s party.” Hannah let her hand slip from Tammy’s hair and she wrapped her arms around herself again, leaning back against the doorframe again.

“Bree...” recalled Tammy, not moving her hand from Hannah’s hip but respecting her apparent need for a bit of physical space. “...coupla inches taller, tidy uniform, tight braids, single ear piercings, no visible tattoos or scars...blue backpack and a dark green school logoed kit bag like Naomi has.” She narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend’s amusement. “...what? She was with Naomi, so I paid attention.”

“If you knew her surname would you have also done a background check?”

“What? No!” Tammy looked like Hannah had just spontaneously grown a second head. “I figured I’d get Patton to do it on her parents or guardian, not the kid, and let you have the details.”

“Me?” Patton made sense, he would be able to go deeper faster with his systems skills than either her or Tammy, but she wasn’t sure why Tammy wouldn’t want to know the answer.

“Super-spy SAC access baby…” teased Tammy, still not quite sure what she’d done to put Hannah in such a….fuzzy place, but it seemed to be a ‘Tammy did good’ fuzziness so she was cool, for now. “...she seemed to be a good kid, and isn’t being on the team conditional on decent grades or something?” Tammy wasn’t involved in Naomi’s life at school beyond being on the approved emergency contact list and cheering her on at the occasional soccer game, though she’d always assumed that only the good students were allowed on the team - it was all very different to her own schooling in Brooklyn.

“She told me about your idea, to try out laser tag…”

“If I was outta line mmpfft.” Tammy went cross-eyed as she tried to look at the finger Hannah had suddenly put on her lips.

“It was brilliant…” Hannah went to lift her finger away, only to feel Tammy’s lips move like she was about to protest, so she left it there, marvelling at how this amazing, strong, confident agent could be so nervous and full of doubts when it came to her relationship with Hannah and her daughter. “...you were so brilliant with her…” This time, when Hannah went to lift her finger away, she didn’t feel immediate movement, suggesting she’d finally got Tammy to begin to understand. “You are so wonderful with her...with me…” Hannah felt the lump in her throat reforming and her eyes watering, something not unnoticed by Tammy.

“Hey…” She slid her hand from Hannah’s hip to her upper back as she threaded the fingers of her other hand through the strands of dark hair that were slipping forwards, easing them back off the beautiful face that she hated to see looking troubled or worse, full of tears. “...if we’re comparing surprises, I spend every day wondering how someone like you even looks twice at me, nevermind keeps letting me hang out with her and her amazing kid.” Tammy’s own smile blossomed when she saw the hint of a twitch in Hannah’s lips as a shy smile began to form. “There ya are…” she whispered when nervous eyes shifted from studying their toes to looking at Tammy. “...the only thing I find hard about loving you is sticking to a promise I made to never tell Naomi I think her father’s turned into a shit.” That and remembering to not get distracted by how good her girlfriend looked in her jeans when they were working, but that was something she’d been struggling with long before actually being able to call Hannah her girlfriend.

“I never…”

“Shh, I know you never asked me, it’s a promise I made myself.”

“Was it at the same time you decided to never complain about him to me?”

“Maybe?” Hedged Tammy, trying to distract Hannah by starting to massage her head and back with her fingers.

“Mmm…” For a brief second, Hannah’s eyes slid shut as she felt strong fingers start to dig into the tight muscles she’d stopped noticing, but she wasn’t easily distracted. “...nice try Gregorio…”

“How’d you know?”

“Super-spy SAC?” It was Hannah’s turn to tease, relieved when she saw Tammy send an eye roll in her direction. “I know you Tam…” Long arms wrapped around Tammy, drawing her close as Hannah kissed her hair. “...and sometimes your silences are really loud,” she whispered, resting her cheek on silky hair and closing her eyes. At first, all she could feel was the stiffness in her girlfriend’s back, then, after a moment it went, making Tammy feel smaller in her arms and prompting her to wrap them tighter around her. ‘Extra squeezy’ was something else that Naomi had apparently not spontaneously come by, though both daughter and girlfriend would independently confirm that Hannah’s ‘extra squeezy’ hugs were some of their favourites.

“Does Sebastian really have his own laser tag stuff?” she asked finally, easing up on the hug just enough to be able to look at Tammy again.

“No clue baby.” Tammy grinned, seeing Hannah’s look of mock outrage. “Wanna bet?”

“Which side would you take?” asked Hannah, letting Tammy lead her to the couch where, alongside her book that she put on the coffee table, were two glasses of wine.

“Why’d it matter?”

“Because I’ve already lost one bet today…” Hannah sat down on the couch and rested her left arm across the top of the seatback, which was all the hint Tammy needed to settle into what was now their ‘usual’ couch snuggling position with her tucked up against Hannah’s side. It was different to her previous relationships, so different that Sebastian had been even more awkward around them when he’d walked in on them watching TV one day and actually dropped a glass...but then everything about this relationship was different to her previous ones, not just the absence of the constant presumption that she was always the ‘tough’ one in it or the ‘big spoon’. “I can’t believe it was Patton…”

“Says the woman who made Sebastian  _ cry  _ during Pictionary…” Tammy leaned forwards and picked up the fuller of the two glasses of wine and passed it to Hannah, then settled back into the corner of the couch and swung her legs up across her girlfriend’s lap as she felt Hannah’s left arm slip down and start playing with a strand of her hair. “...like he was going to make a dirty joke about you.”

“I guess…” Hannah took a sip of the wine and then put the glass on the table at the end of the couch. What had, independently been a slightly too small couch for her liking and her long standing resignation to never having shirt sleeves quite long enough to reach her wrists, because her arms were apparently that extra inch longer than ‘normal’ for women her size, suddenly were ‘perfect’ together once Tammy had decided that inserting herself between the couch end and Hannah was one of her favourite spots. “What?” The downside though, was that it left Hannah a little too easily exposed to tickle and prod attacks. Knowing her girlfriend’s single ticklish spot was small compensation for her girlfriend knowing where her multiple ticklish spots were, though she hadn’t yet shared all of them with Naomi at least, so still had the upper hand in some tickle fights.

“Aren’t you gonna share?”

“Is that Naomi’s then?” 

“Nah, but I’m comfy…” To emphasise her point, Tammy rested her head on Hannah’s shoulder and pouted, which Hannah did inwardly concede was impressively adorable.

“You mean I’m comfy…” Hannah stretched her arm out and picked up the wine glass, “...since you’re using me as a cushion.”

“Details schmetails.” Tammy watched the wine glass return towards her, only to frown when Hannah took another sip from it and then put it again back down on the table. “Hey!”

“Shh…” Hannah leaned in and kissed Tammy with wine covered lips, solving both her immediate problems. 

She knew that Tammy’s real reason for wanting the glass of wine wasn’t because she actually wanted a drink. It had taken a few weeks for Hannah to notice the pattern, but she finally spotted that if she’d drunk some red wine and Tammy hadn’t, then her girlfriend skillfully managed to dodge any kisses Hannah tried to land on her lips until after either Tammy had finally drunk some red wine as well, or, most often, Hannah had eaten or drunk something else. A well chosen sleepy phone call conversation a few days later, and the former spy had learned about over-affectionate relations that had been a bit too much for a young Tammy at the best of times, but became worse when the red wine was flowing. Kissing Tammy on the mouth having just drunk red wine? The ‘taste’ of the lingering flavours on Hannah’s mouth and breath had uncomfortable memories for her girlfriend, but kissing Tammy with deliberately wet lips so Tammy tasted the wine directly? That broke the cycle, which they’d been apparently at risk of this evening, so presumably Tammy hadn’t remembered to drink any of the wine after she’d poured it. 

“...I said she could read for thirty minutes or to the end of her book, whichever was first.”

“Ah,” whispered Tammy, licking her lips, collecting the drops of wine, understanding Hannah’s warning. Naomi’s joy at seeing her Mom made her a reluctant sleeper at times, and coupled with an insatiable curiosity, she was easily kept awake if the rest of the house sounded like it was having too much fun when she was in bed but not asleep. Pizza night with the NCIS team had made for a long day for the twelve-year-old though, and Hannah was fully expecting to slip back into her daughter’s bedroom in a few minutes to find Naomi fast asleep with her light still on and her book still in her hand. But anything that sounded too exciting in the next few minutes could equally have her wide awake again. “Sebastian loves Naomi almost as much as I do, he’ll nerd it up for her without a second thought if it helps her.”

“I know…” Hannah let her head drop against the back of the couch. “Ryan’s going to be pissed.”

“Does he need to know?”

“What? Of course he’ll know.” Hannah turned her head slightly, not picking it up from the couch, but still managed a sort of squinty glare at her girlfriend.

“What I meant was, it’s not like you need to ask permission.” Tammy realised she’d actually been thinking about this while she’d been reading her book. “It’s in the City, doesn’t mean skipping school, isn’t unsupervised…” Those, she knew, were the mandatory reasons that the custody agreement insisted ‘permission’ needed to be sought from the other parent. “...so what if you take her to Laser Tag next weekend? We coulda gone to the zoo instead.” She reached up and lightly ran her fingertip down Hannah’s nose, something that invariably caused her to smile, just like now. “He’s dumped all the matches and parties on you anyway.” That was the one bit of their agreement that really pissed Tammy off - he got the set routine of the school week, whereas Hannah’s time at the weekends always had some sort of chunk of time taken out of it by a school friend’s party or a soccer game, which somehow never quite seemed fair to Tammy, especially when Hannah had been working full time in New Orleans. But she knew to keep her frustration to herself as it wasn’t like Hannah could take Naomi to DC with her for the week, so for the moment, the arrangement actually meant fewer fights with him.

“You know I don’t mind those…” said Hannah quietly, knowing what was going through her girlfriend’s mind. Her own school experience of constantly changing schools meant she was on the soccer team but never ‘in’ with her fellow players, meant that she was ‘in’ their classes but never part of her classmates’ groups when it came to weekend plans. She was too relieved that Naomi was having a better experience of school to dwell on how little she actually saw her daughter some weekends. “...but I will stop worrying about Ryan.”

“Good plan baby…” agreed Tammy, kissing the skin she could find between the open buttons of Hannah’s shirt, resisting the urge to explore further, knowing Hannah would need to go check on Naomi soon.

“You got plans this weekend?” It was wonderful of Tammy to effectively move in each weekend so they could spend as much time together given her commuting to DC, but Hannah was always concerned that her girlfriend was effectively putting her life on hold for Hannah each weekend.

“Just need to remember to call my Aunt to say Happy Birthday Sunday evening.” Tammy, despite her good intentions about not exploring too far until after Hannah had checked on Naomi, did, in tangling her fingers in her girlfriend’s shirt, manage to sneak a fingertip through the opening between the buttons, finding toned stomach to stroke. “And decide if that book’s worth it.” She’d been trying to get into it for almost a fortnight, so under her unwritten rules, if she still hadn’t got into it by Sunday then it was done for.

“I thought it was last weekend?” asked Hannah, fairly certain Tammy had been repeatedly trying to assure an elderly lady that she wasn’t too old to have candles on cake, though she’d been struggling to follow as she’d had her head in Tammy’s lap at the time and was distracted enough by the fingers running through her hair to forget the little Sicilian she now knew.

“Different Aunt. That one was my Dad’s nice big sister. This one is Mom’s nasty little sister. And different book, finished that one Tuesday.”

“Ah. So why the call then?” Hannah, coming from a fairly small family that had only got smaller after the Revolution and her parents’ constant moving in the US, was still trying to understand the complexities of the Gregorio clan and some days, thought Sebastian’s suggestion that she watched ‘The Sopranos’ for research purposes wasn’t actually a joke.

“Because she’s the spoiled one who will tell tales to my Mom like she’s still six, then Mom will call to yell and...” Tammy sighed heavily, frustrated by the mixed emotions she had whenever she thought of her various family...and of how they’d react to Hannah...one day...maybe...hopefully. “...but she’ll be at Mass in the morning, then family lunch, so I can’t call her until later.” Tammy saw the bright side of having this duty delayed though. “After Naomi’s match and stuff… you need me to scram for a bit?”

“Never.” Hannah emphasised her point with the one-armed version of the ‘extra squeezy’ hug, rubbing her cheek thoughtfully against silky soft hair, grateful for her girlfriend’s thoughtfulness but never able to think of anything she could possibly need to do on a weekend that Tammy’s presence wouldn’t be welcome at. “Unless Naomi needs anything I’m good.” She felt her cell vibrate in her back pocket, causing her to groan - it was hopefully just the reminder she’d set to make sure she checked on Naomi, but after the week she’d had, she wouldn’t rule out work.

“I got you baby…” Tammy slipped her hand behind Hannah’s back, between her shirt and the couch and with a little nudge at the right moment, had Hannah lift her hips a fraction so she could slide the cell out. “Her time’s up.” Tammy could see in the lock screen the flashing notification that the timer Hannah had set was up. She passed the cell to Hannah then swung her legs down onto the floor. Under different circumstances she might have been tempted to tease Hannah for a kiss before letting her stand up, but not when it was Naomi that was requiring them to move. “Here’s hoping she’s put her light out and is asleep.”

“I’ll take asleep…” sighed Hannah, rubbing her neck as she stood up, not sure how she was going to keep calm if she went into Naomi’s room and found her still awake and reading. “...I know I should be delighted she loves reading…”

“Time and place baby.”

“Huh?” Confused, Hannah looked back at her girlfriend as she stood.

“You’re allowed to not like her reading at the wrong time, like when she should be asleep, or in the wrong place, like…” Tammy’s mind went blank, partly because she still didn’t really know that much about what Naomi did aside from class, soccer and crave her Mom’s company, and partly because Hannah was stretching her neck, which reminded Tammy how many times during the day she’d stopped herself from trailing kisses all over it. “...like the middle of a soccer game.” She blinked, the stupidity of her example jolting her out of her distraction. “You wanna watch anything?” She rushed on with the conversation when she saw Hannah’s eyes cloud, like she didn’t want to say no but couldn’t actually bring herself to say yes. “Or should I offer a neck rub or something?”

“As lovely as the ‘or something’ sounds…” teased Hannah, running her fingers through her hair after she’d put her cell back in her pocket. “Neck rub would be perfect…” She rolled her shoulders stiffly, unknowingly giving Tammy another idea.

“Did you put the hot water on already?”

“Yes, before I put the groceries away.” Hannah couldn’t fathom the relevance of the question, but accepted it at face value and answered without argument.

“Then how’s about neck rub in a hot bath?”

“That…” Hannah smiled warmly, deciding she was sufficiently tidy to tackle an obstinately awake Naomi if that was necessary, and had no further reason to prevaricate: if Naomi was still reading she really did need to be stopped as, no matter how grumpy she’d be now, tomorrow they’d have a grouch. “...sounds perfect...” She leaned forwards and tenderly kissed Tammy on the lips, pulling back before love could be joined by passion and lust. “...if you’re also in the bath?” 


	17. Chapter 17

“Come in?”

“Morning sweetheart.” Tammy carefully stood just inside the door, only pushing it far enough open so that she could see Naomi, who was sat up in bed, reading. Although she was starting to do the pre-teen resistance to going to bed ‘early like a kid’, the twelve year old had yet to master the art of the teenage lie-in, so at just after 8am on Saturday morning, she was awake and Tammy took her smile as permission to venture a little further into the room. “Thought you’d like some milk?”

“Thanks Tammy.” Naomi shuffled across her bed so she left enough space for Tammy to sit down as she put the glass down on the coaster that was on the table, making Tammy smile.

“What’s funny?”

“Nothin’.”

“Ta-mmy…”

“Don’t whine.” The instinctive response surprised them both, and Tammy sat down looking a little sheepish. “Sorry ‘bout that, not enough coffee.” She caught her lip as she watched Naomi for any signs she’d been upset at her snappishness, but after a beat she just shrugged and picked up her milk. Tammy did not want to end up anywhere near the ‘you’re not my Mom, you can’t tell me what to do’ territory that she’d remembered hearing her school peers with step-parents shout as taunts, especially as she and Hannah had only been seeing each other for a few months. “It was nothing, just seeing you have a coaster...you know your Mom has the same one on her desk at work?” She was also the only one who had a coaster, which was the real reason Tammy had been amused to see one in Naomi’s bedroom, but that was something she’d keep to herself.

“There were four, and she can't have exactly the same one.” Naomi put her glass back down on it and, deep in thought, swiped her top lip with her tongue in an attempt to avoid a milk moustache. “Dad still has one.” She rubbed her nose, then focused on Tammy. “That’s my left hand, when I was tiny.”

“Your Mom has your right foot on her desk here, and I’ll get her to send you a picture of your right hand one if you like?”

“She has it?”

“On her desk in DC.” There was something about the way that Naomi took a gulping breathe then reached for her milk again that rang an alarm bell for Tammy. "You didn't know?" 

"Dad said they were lost. He made a big deal of letting me bring this one here." 

The little shit, thought Tammy, making a determined effort to not voice her opinion on Ryan's behaviour. 

"Not lost, just extra safe." She thought about why Naomi might not know about the coaster in the field office. "She keeps it in the same drawer as her gun at work." 

"Really?" Naomi's eyes widened at this new piece of information, it never occurred to her that maybe her Mom did have them, despite what her Dad had said.

“Really.” Tammy decided a subject change was needed, so looked at the book Naomi had put down on the covers. “That any good?” She didn’t expect to recognise the author, not being at all familiar with the reading options for twelve year olds, though she was prepared to give them a go if Naomi recommended them - a good story was a good story after all.

“I don’t know.” Naomi picked it up once she’d put down her milk glass, the milk mustache forgotten about as she considered the characters on the front cover. “I think I’m supposed to be on his side..” She pointed at the boy that might have been a goblin or something like that, Tammy wasn’t sure but decided not to ask. “...but he’s a bit annoying so far. I think she’s supposed to be the annoying one.” Naomi pointed at a slightly sour-faced girl, drawn in the background of the cover illustration, then looked up at Tammy. “But she seems nice to me.”

“Maybe it makes more sense in a bit,” suggested Tammy, getting ready to stand up, glad she’d looked in on the girl but not wanting to overstay her welcome. “Is it for school?”

“No. Veronica suggested I might like the writer.” Naomi looked at the book Hannah had rescued from her face last night. “I liked the first one.”

“Then maybe you just need to give the second one a bit more of a chance,” suggested Tammy, estimating that Naomi couldn’t be more than a couple of chapters into what looked to be a good sized novel for a twelve-year old. “But if you get to a third of the way through and it’s still a hassle, you’re allowed to stop y’know?” Tammy inwardly smiled when she saw Naomi’s eyes go wide and round at the seemingly radical suggestion. “Not if it’s a book for school, but reading is like visiting a place….if it makes you feel uncomfortable you’re allowed to leave it, ‘kay?” She knew that at some point there would be books that were worth Naomi reading precisely because they did make her uncomfortable, but that was a little bit heavy for 8am on a Saturday morning. “Can I borrow the first one?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to wallpaper the bathroom with it…” It took Naomi a moment to untangle the sarcasm, but she grinned at the silly idea. “...because if you say it was good, I’d like to read it. My current book isn’t working out so good, and it’s the only one I brought.”

“Okay…” Naomi leaned over the side of the bed to pick up the book to pass to Tammy, finding it a bit weird that a grown-up would want to read her books, but not being able to find a problem with Tammy’s request. “...wow.” She stayed leaning over the side of the bed, looking down at something, prompting Tammy to look as well.

“What?”

“Your feet.”

Tammy looked down at her feet, as if she had no idea what she was wearing, and flexed her toes, making the fluffy slippers move, then looked back up at Naomi with a perfectly serious expression.

“Cookie Monster.” She wiggled her toes again, making Cookie Monster move, causing Naomi to giggle. “Wait, you do know Cookie Monster right? I mean…” She stalled, suddenly not sure how to explain herself without accidentally sounding rude.

“I do...now.” Naomi hauled herself back properly into bed and passed the book to Tammy, seeing she’d made Tammy frown. “From Muppets stuff online since I moved here.” Naomi looked again at Tammy’s feet. “Does Mom know you’ve got cartoon slippers?”

“Cookie Monster is a Muppet, not a cartoon character,” corrected Tammy with complete seriousness. “She got them for me. I do not like my feet to be cold.”

“But aren’t you from New York?”

“Yes.” At some point Tammy might get a bit particular about being from Brooklyn, but Naomi would probably need to have graduated High School if not College for that to happen. “Which is why I do not like my feet to be cold now I live somewhere that it doesn’t snow often.”

“Makes sense.” Naomi wiggled back across her bed now she’d finished studying Tammy’s feet, prepared to continue giving her new book a chance. “I don’t mind cold floors, don’t know about snow.”

“Oh?” Tammy hadn’t given much thought to Naomi’s childhood so far, aside from the Zelko stuff obviously, but now she thought about it, if the last couple of years had been in New Orleans, and before that she thought Hannah had said they’d spent at least a year in Oman, then if Naomi had ever had a snowy winter she’d probably been not much older than six or seven. “Not sure you’ve missed much sweetheart.” Tammy stood up, seeing Naomi was seemingly content to settle back into the pillows and give her book another try. “Showered and dressed for breakfast by 10?” she suggested, seeing the time on Naomi’s alarm clock and thinking that would hopefully give Hannah at least another hour’s sleep, which would help her catch up a bit.

“Can we ask Mom to do pancakes?”

“Maybe.” Tammy headed over to the door and gave the room a quick once over, checking there was nothing else she should do, smiling when she saw Naomi was already giving her book another go. “But don’t be a grump if she says no ‘kay? Remember she’s cooking special stuff for dinner.”

“Cheerios?” suggested Naomi, looking up from her book having listened to what Tammy had been really saying. “Not so much washing up.”

“Thinkin’ like a grown up…” teased Tammy, “...10 o’clock sweetheart, washed and dressed.”

* * *

Closing the door to Hannah’s bedroom a minute later, Tammy almost wished she had her phone in reach so she could take a picture of her girlfriend, then gave herself a swift telling off - that was just asking for trouble with all the different ways people were hacking phones and the like. Putting the book she’d borrowed from Naomi on the bedside table, Tammy stepped out of her slippers and, moving carefully so she didn’t wake Hannah, lifted the comforter and sat down on the mattress.

Hannah moved.

Tammy froze, waiting to see if she’d nudged Hannah into wakefulness, only to breathe again when, comforter caught hold of again and anchored firmly under her chin, Hannah seemed to be content to settle onto her right side, turned towards the side of the bed that was starting to be ‘Tammy’s’ and slip back into deeper sleep.

Not wanting to risk jostling her girlfriend too much, Tammy carefully picked up the two pillows she’d been sleeping on and positioned them up against the headboard so she could sit up and read in some comfort, preferring the companionship of a sleeping Hannah to the convenience of the couch. Then, with a final check that Hannah was still more asleep than awake, Tammy shifted her butt nearer the pillows and swung her legs up into the bed.

“Mmm….Tam?”

Tammy sighed, and looked down at her girlfriend, who had one eye sleepily half open, her plan to settle the comforter across her lap on hold. “You’re supposed to be asleep baby.”

“Am too...” mumbled Hannah, telling Tammy she was actually more asleep than awake still, which was good news if Tammy’s plan for Hannah to get a bit more sleep was to happen, her half open eye drifting shut again. Releasing her firm grip on the comforter, Hannah stretched her left arm out, her hand finding Tammy’s pyjama covered thigh, mumbling something else that Tammy couldn’t decipher as she then shifted across the bed until she was effectively cuddling Tammy’s thigh, her arm wrapped around it and her forehead less than an inch from Tammy’s hip.

Letting the comforter softly settle over Hannah’s shoulder, Tammy carefully bunched it into her lap, trying not to think about how close those ridiculously skillful fingers were from her centre, knowing that Hannah was genuinely asleep and had just happened to wrap herself around her thigh because of how Tammy had been sitting, not because she was deliberately tormenting her. Waiting a long minute to check that she still had a sleeping girlfriend wrapped around her, Tammy carefully reached for the book and started to read.

Half an hour or so after Tammy had first started reading, she felt the grip Hannah had on her thigh change, something dragging her girlfriend from fast asleep to almost awake. Opening her eyes slowly, Hannah shifted closer up to Tammy as she instinctively tried to shift from hugging to actively snuggling up against her girlfriend.

“Morning baby…” Tammy put down her book and looked at Hannah with an amused grin, trying not to laugh at the visible confusion on her face when her attempt to snuggle up to Tammy and kiss her good morning meant Hannah actually got a mouthful of pyjama bottom. “...I’m up here.”

“Huh.” 

Hannah was a morning person when woken by alarm clocks, phone calls, gunshots or Naomi calling for her. The rest of the time, she liked to wake up a little slower, something she’d developed a whole new appreciation for when she’d started being able to wake up with Tammy - she’d learned that she could be the sort of person that didn’t go from asleep to up and about in a blink of an eye, but instead could wrap herself around another person and just savour the moment without the rest of life and its responsibilities and worries intruding. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had some of that with Ryan, because he’d been quite a good snuggler, but in retrospect it was always a prelude to sex, part of the foreplay routine, whereas with Tammy? It was snuggling for the joy and pleasure of companionable comfort...that sometimes turned extra intimate and included making love, but didn’t motivate them to snuggle in the first place.

“Hey…” Tammy’s smile shifted from amused to affectionate as she brushed sleep mussed hair back from Hannah’s forehead, helping her orientate herself.

“Hi.” Now she was more awake, Hannah realised why her instinctive attempt to kiss her girlfriend as she was waking had not gone to plan - Tammy’s pyjama covered hip was very different to the bare shoulder she’d been anticipating. She also worked out where her left hand was, and her cheeks pinked in embarrassment as she tried to discreetly extract her hand from where she’d managed to insinuate it between her girlfriend’s thighs. “Sorry…”

“For what?” Tammy shifted herself down the bed, getting tangled up in the comforter but achieving her main objective which was to get her head back on the pillows so she was nearer ‘eye level’ with Hannah.

“My arm…” Hannah caught her lip, nervousness seeing her stumble to a stop, unable to read Tammy’s expression.

“Didn’t know I wasn’t still lying down.” Tammy was unable to ignore the discomfort her shuffle down the bed had caused her, so she lifted her hips up off the mattress and tugged her pyjama bottoms so they were no longer digging into sensitive parts of her. “And you were a perfect gentleman.” Even as she said it, she was frowning, knowing she’d walked into something of a cliche and in spite of everything, that would amuse Hannah. “Lady, whatever…” She turned her head so she could look at Hannah, concerned when she saw that despite what she’d thought, her girlfriend was looking serious. “If it makes you feel better, if you ever accidentally get a bit handsy while you’re asleep I promise I’ll punch ya awake, deal?”

“Deal…” agreed Hannah slowly, seeing what Tammy was trying to do but not entirely convinced.

“You didn’t do anything baby…” Tammy rolled onto her left side so she could properly pay attention to her worrier girlfriend, all vestiges of humorous deflection gone from her mind. “...I got back into bed and sat up to read. Before I could finish getting settled, you’d reached out and found my leg…” Tammy carefully reached out, unconsciously mirroring exactly what Hannah had done earlier, only this time Tammy’s arm landed on her girlfriend’s waist, with her hand settling in the small of her back. “And you looked so cute and were doing this sleepy mumbling thing I didn’t do anything to disturb you.”

“Sleepy mumbling?”

“Uh huh.” Tammy grinned cheekily. “Cutest snoring I’ve ever heard.”

“I…” Hannah propped her head up on her elbow so she could see Tammy better, which helped the comforter to slide from her shoulders. “...don’t…” Now the comforter was out of the way she could reach out with her left hand, “...snore!” and slip her fingers inside the waistband of Tammy’s pyjama bottoms and find the one spot on her girlfriend, the front of her hip bone where it met her pelvis, at the top of her thigh where she was ticklish.

Yelping quietly when she realised what Hannah’s intention was, Tammy tried to evade the tickling by rolling away and onto her back. Hannah moved with her, shifting across the bed to stay within reach of her girlfrlend’s ticklish spot.

“What was I doing?” teased Hannah when she’d moved across the bed enough that she could look down at her girlfriend, her tickling movement shifting to non-ticklish caress.

“Really cute snoring…” Tammy’s breathing hitched (and not in an aroused way) when the caressing became tickling again. “...sleepy mumbling that’s definitely not snoring?” The tickling became caressing again. “It was still really cute though.”

Hannah shook her head, or at least as much as she could given she was still propped up using her arm, her head supported with her hand. “I thought I was super scary?”

“Super-spy-special-agent you is good scary…” Tammy shifted onto her side and mirrored her girlfriend’s position, grinning. “...and sleepy mumbling you is super cute.” Tammy lightly ran her index fingertip down her girlfriend’s nose, down over her lips to her chin and followed the line of her jaw, before slipping her hand around the back of her neck, holding her steady as Tammy leaned in to kiss her gently.

“I can live with that…” sighed Hannah, savouring the feeling of Tammy’s lips on hers. “...if I get more kisses like that…” she teased, inching her hips forward so the next time their lips met their necks wouldn’t have to stretch as much. She’d given up trying to point out she wasn’t a spy in the first week of their relationship, more interested in the kisses that she quickly realised always followed - and as nicknames went, she could think of plenty worse ones that no amount of kissing could ever compensate for.

“Plenty more baby…” agreed Tammy, moving forwards towards Hannah, humming when she felt her girlfriend’s hand trail over her hip and settle on her lower back, Hannah’s thumb automatically starting to stroke the base of her spine as her fingers spread out and gently squeezed her butt. After a few moments of lazy, easy kisses, Hannah’s elbow had enough of holding her up, and she sank back into the pillows, turning from her side to be lying on her back, with Tammy rolling with her and ending up lying mostly on her front, half on Hannah, the taller agent’s long arm still wrapped around her hips. Conscious she might not be a welcome weight on her girlfriend, Tammy started to move off Hannah, only to feel the arm tighten around her.

“Stay…” whispered Hannah, closing her eyes as she savoured the feel of Tammy lying mostly on her, tucking her free arm behind her head.

“Go back to sleep baby,” encouraged Tammy, knowing that if Hannah kept her eyes closed and stayed relaxed, she could be persuaded to fall asleep for a few more minutes, which after the last few days, had to only help her.

“I’m awake…” Hannah opened one eye, checked that Tammy wasn’t going anywhere, then closed it again, enjoying the quiet calm of just her and Tammy, starting the day together slowly. “...what time is it?”

Tammy turned her head, taking care not to dig her chin into her girlfriend’s chest, and managed to see the time on the alarm clock Hannah still had on her bedside table but no longer ever set.

“9ish.” Tammy laid her head back down on her favourite pillow, Hannah, and tucked her hair behind her ear so it didn’t keep getting stuck in her mouth. “I told Naomi to be showered and dressed for 10.” She didn’t need to see Hannah’s face to know that had surprised her. “I went and said hi about an hour ago, took her a glass of milk.” Tammy had observed enough mornings at the Khoury house to know that was Naomi’s morning drink of choice, and had guessed it would help stop the girl feeling too hungry too soon. “We had a nice chat.”

“Oh?” Hannah’s confusion had cleared up, but now she was curious about their ‘nice chat’, knowing they got on well with each other, but were ultimately forming a friendship that wasn’t like anything either had with anyone else.

“She found my slippers strange.”

“Muppets are new to her.” Hannah thought for a moment, wondering if there was something else also. “And slippers for warmth. She doesn’t mind cold floors.”

“We talked about snow too, kinda.” Tammy was suddenly doubtful about how she was going to explain the whole connection to her slippers, so tried to distract Hannah or herself, she wasn’t sure which, by kissing along Hannah’s collarbone.

“If I’m still in DC in December…” Hannah’s eyes slid shut for a moment as she felt Tammy’s tongue trail a wet path along her collarbone. “..Tam…” she warned, reminding herself as much as her girlfriend to not get too enthusiastic - she did not want to be the parent that meant Naomi suddenly understood what hickeys were.

“I know baby…” agreed Tammy, resting her chin carefully on Hannah’s chest again, understanding how careful Hannah was to not give the large team of very ‘DC’ agents she was leading any more ammunition for gossiping about her than the NCIS rumour mill already had from the Van Cleef situation and her New Orleans commute.

“Is it petty of me to want Ryan to be the one having to explain them to Naomi?”

“Huh?” Tammy never really wanted to hear Hannah’s ex-husband’s name, least of all when they were in bed, but, if she’d just heard correctly, the ‘no marks’ rule had been changed...and while she wasn’t inclined to deliberately plan to mark her girlfriend very often, there were some parts of her girlfriend that were just too kissable in Tammy’s view, and knowing there wasn’t instant kicking out of bed penalty if she got a little carried away was important. “Ryan’s the problem? But I thought...”

“I’m not the new girl anymore…” Hannah’s nose twitched, her hair tickling it, so she moved her arm from behind her head to move it out of the way. “...and you know Naomi asks every time she sees anything that looks like an injury.”

“Super-scary-secret-agent more intimidating than Mom…” teased Tammy, deciding she was hearing that as long as she picked her location carefully, a mark wasn’t an automatic ‘Tammy in trouble’ moment.

“I am not a secret agent…” sighed Hannah with mock despair for the umpteenth time, tucking her arm back behind her head once she’d realised that if she couldn’t comfortably reach Tammy’s back without moving, and she didn’t want to move. “...never worked for Secret Service…”

“Mmm…” Tammy had managed to kiss her way along her girlfriend’s collarbone, nudging aside the shoulder strap of the top Hannah wore to sleep in when Naomi was around….the fabric strip that was pretty much where Hannah’s bra strap would be, and was therefore the perfect spot to lovingly lavish affection on.

“Wha……….mmm….” Hannah’s question became redundant when her brain fought through the warm, fuzzy haze that Tammy’s kissing was generating: the sensitivity of her collarbones and the amazing feelings and arousal she got when they were touched, be it by lips or fingers, had been one of the many discoveries about herself Hannah had made with Tammy’s enthusiastic support in recent months. 

Instincts overcame rational thought and, as she arched her back, unconsciously ‘presenting’ herself so it was even easier for Tammy to graze the edges of her collarbone with her teeth while she kissed her, she squeezed and kneaded Tammy’s butt, pulling her tight to her body while her other hand shifted from being behind her own head. However, before she could reach for Tammy’s head and tangle her fingers in messy soft brown hair, her hand was caught by Tammy’s and firmly guided down onto the mattress.

“Shoulder….still….” growled Tammy, making her point by finding the edges of Hannah’s collarbone with her tongue, then gently grazing them with her teeth. When Hannah had tried reaching for Tammy’s head, her shoulder blade had moved, changing the angle of her shoulder joint and her collarbone had ‘sunk’, becoming less accessible to Tammy’s mouth.

“Mea….nie…” Hannah’s protest was token at best, exhaled on a sigh of contentment, unable to muster the energy to object. Eventually however, she became sufficiently frustrated at how passive their current position left her, that she began to move her arm again, only this time she managed to give advance warning. “Come here Tam…”

“Nu...uh…” Tammy didn’t stop Hannah from moving her arm this time, instead taking it as a suggestion that she trail a line of kisses back along her collarbone to the base of her girlfriend’s neck. “Comfy.” And she was - for all her reservations about lying with her weight on her girlfriend, something Hannah repeatedly declared to be a totally unnecessary worry whilst privately wondering which ex of Tammy’s she needed to kill for giving her a complex, once she’d settled against and on Hannah’s long body, legs invariably threaded together, Tammy was incredibly reluctant to move.

“But I want to kiss you.” To emphasise that she wasn’t wanting Tammy to move off her, just up her, Hannah tightened her hold with her right arm again, holding her girlfriend’s hips tight to her while she bent her right leg at the knee, almost immediately causing her thigh to press against Tammy’s centre.

“Ha…” The jolt of surprise at the sudden contact was enough to detach Tammy’s lips from Hannah’s neck. “...nnah…” She wasn’t sure if she was frustrated at the equally sudden loss of contact when Hannah straightened her leg again, or relieved - not because she didn’t crave her girlfriend’s touch, but because a small, practical voice deep in her brain was reminding her that they didn’t have much time before breakfast.

“Come up here Tam…” encouraged Hannah again, now using her hands to emphasise her point by trying to nudge her girlfriend’s body in the right direction. 

“Mmm…” Tammy gave in, reluctantly, and carefully eased herself further up Hannah’s body, taking care to not elbow or knee her in the process, though she couldn’t resist sneaking a few kisses along her girlfriend’s neck as she moved. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Hannah brushed Tammy’s hair out of the way and guided their lips together, savouring the first brush of featherlight contact before parting her lips and deepening the kiss.

“MOM!”

“That didn’t sound good,” said Tammy, reacting with the same lightning fast reaction that Hannah did, so they were both getting out of bed a split second later, neither wasting even a moment to think about ignoring the shout. “Go be Mom…” she encouraged, grabbing a hair tie from the bedside table as she saw Hannah glance at her gun and badge as she stood. “...I’ll be right behind you if it’s needed.”

“What is it baby?” asked Hannah as she opened the bedroom door, surprised to see Naomi stood right the other side, looking freaked but not terrified. She was very glad she hadn’t charged into the hall with her gun drawn, though she could sense Tammy stood just outside of Naomi’s view, and didn’t need to see her to know she did have her gun, ready just in case.

“Spider…in the bath.”

“Really?” Hannah bit her lip so she didn’t laugh at her daughter’s fear of the eight legged visitor. “Is it using all the hot water?”

“Mo-om…” Naomi reached out and took hold of her Mom’s hand, giving it a tug as a hint that she wanted her help not her strange sense of humour. “...can you get rid of it please?”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you hadn't guessed, I'm not a fan of Ryan. Unsurprisingly, this is an opinion Tammy shares with me.

“Now what?” asked Naomi, watching as Hannah closed the fridge door.

“Now you do your homework.” Hannah went to the sink to wash her hands, eying the washing up with a mixture of resignation and relief - she’d forgotten quite how many dishes and bowls were used to do all the preparation, but with hours until the final cooking started, at least there was time to get everything used washed, dried and put away again. “And…” She was about to add that she’d start on the washing up, when she heard her phone ringing, followed by her girlfriend’s feet.

“...I’m starting the washing up while your Mom takes this,” said Tammy, having heard enough of what Hannah had said to be able to continue the sentence while passing the cell phone over. To avoid it getting covered in ingredients, Tammy had kept an eye on it for Hannah while she and Naomi spent the time together in the kitchen, so that all but the most urgent of calls from the taskforce went to voicemail. “G’wn...scoot!” she encouraged, picking up a nearby dishcloth as she handed off the phone, Hannah seeing why Tammy was shooing Naomi out. “Or I get you on drying duty!”

“Homework, got it!” And, suspecting nothing, Naomi ran from the kitchen to her bedroom, finding the idea of her math homework far less unpleasant than she had done a minute earlier, unaware that the call her Mom was now taking on the front porch was from her father.

Trying not to think the worst, Tammy started filling the sink with hot water while eying up the various dishes and bowls, inwardly amused as she tried to picture Sebastian’s reaction if he knew she was volunteering to do the washing up for Hannah given her track record in her own kitchen.

“Wow.”

“Huh?” Shaken from her random thoughts, Tammy turned around and saw her girlfriend leaning against the far side of the kitchen space. “That was quick.” Even as she spoke, Tammy saw the lightness fade from Hannah’s face as she wrapped her arms around herself, clearly suggesting that whatever had prompted Ryan’s call, it wasn’t good news, so she changed the subject. “I’ve done the dishes before.”

“That wasn’t the surprise.”

“Then what was?” asked Tammy, turning back to the sink so she could concentrate on making sure the big mixing bowl Hannah had used was, once clean, properly balanced on the side to drain.

“Your slippers.”

“Are Cookie Monster, you know this baby…” Tammy felt around the bottom of the sink, checking there weren’t any spoons left in the water, then pulled out the plug, deciding there wasn’t much point washing more when there was nowhere to put them to dry.

“Yes, and not on your feet.” Without waiting for any reply, Hannah walked out of the kitchen and into the other room to retrieve the forgotten slippers.

“What?” Plug pulled, Tammy stepped back from the sink and looked down at her feet, which as Hannah had correctly identified, were bare. Clearly, in her haste to get the phone to her girlfriend, she’d not bothered putting her slippers back on and then, distracted by making sure Naomi didn’t know it was Ryan calling, hadn’t noticed she was standing on the tiled kitchen floor in her bare feet. “Huh.” Of course, now she knew her feet were bare, she also was noticing that they were cold.

“Here…” Hannah reappeared in the kitchen holding Tammy’s slippers, which she’d found abandoned by the end of the couch. She put them down on the floor by Tammy’s feet, then tentatively reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear for her.

“Thanks baby.” Grateful to have her chilled feet in the warmth of the fluffy slippers once again, Tammy caught hold of Hannah’s hand and kissed the knuckles. “You want tea?”

“I…” Hannah didn't know what she wanted to do, except for one thing. "... want to kill him." 

"Then we need Sebastian in the loop so we can get away with it." Tammy punctuated her calm acceptance of Hannah’s request with another kiss and a gentle tug on her arm to encourage Hannah closer. "What'd he do?" 

“Forget he and Veronica were going to visit some friends of hers upstate tomorrow.”

“So he’s missing her game?” Tammy’s face showed rather expressively what she thought of that change of plan - Naomi would be very upset, though the evil voice in her head did point out it served him right for all the times he’d lost it with Hannah when she’d had last minute issues, though never as lame as forgetting about a lunch trip.

“And not going to be back until very late so hoped Naomi could stay with me Sunday night.”

“Do you believe him?” Privately, Tammy was inclined to think that the occasional chickenshit was more likely to be wanting to avoid the post match team pizza trip, which according to Hannah was ‘rather loud’, though she’d said it in the same tone of voice she described scenes as ‘rather grim’, which they’d all quickly learned to recognise as being a massive understatement.

“I don’t know.” Hannah dragged her free hand through her hair and sighed heavily, her thoughts scattered as she tried to work out how to hold everything together. Her flight on Monday morning was just after 6, so even factoring in light traffic and a quiet airport she was still leaving before 5am. It was one thing to leave Tammy either in bed or at the airport as the sun was rising, but Naomi? “I could kill him.”

“I know baby, and much as I love you in orange…” That earned Tammy a weary smile and an eyeroll, which was better than the punch in the shoulder she’d been aiming for. “...I love you in your jeans and a nice double bed more.” Wrapping her other arm around Hannah’s hips, she managed to finally coax her tense girlfriend into a proper hug and began rubbing soothing circles over rigid shoulder blades. “Plus if you kill him then you’d need to factor in Sebastian’s schedule when you plan our ‘date break’.” 

As much as Tammy loved Naomi, and absolutely understood that her daughter was always going to be Hannah’s number one ‘girl’, she was very grateful that Ryan was local enough that most of the time she did get regular opportunities to have Hannah all to herself, without Naomi thinking too much about what they might be doing that she couldn’t join in with. The idea of the ‘date break’ was something Hannah had suggested fairly early on after their first foray into being together, acutely conscious that, while accepting Naomi was part of Hannah’s life was fundamental to any relationship, there was also a need for some ‘grown up’ time without Naomi to allow the relationship to develop. As they’d adjusted to her commuting rhythm, her worries about not being able to have that opportunity faded, with their Thursday evening routine especially important to that, but they’d kept the idea of the ‘date break’ - using it as the stake in silly bets they’d make, like the one who out of Sebastian and Patton would make the first reference to Hannah’s language skills as a play on the word ‘cunnilingus’. It was one of those ‘everyone wins’ stakes, with the ‘loser’ nominated as the trip planner for a weekend away somewhere to treat the ‘winner’, who was also entitled to victory bragging rights and non-subtle hint dropping.

“Okay.” Hannah closed her eyes and tried to let go of some of the anger she felt towards Ryan, knowing that she needed to let it go before she saw Naomi, as she genuinely didn’t want her daughter involved in the tension. And Tammy was right, Naomi was always suspicious when they occasionally had a need for her to stay with Sebastian for a couple of hours, and was starting to demonstrate she’d picked up rather more of Hannah’s interrogation skills than was normal for a twelve year old. “Why does he do it?”

Tammy drew back from the hug just enough so she could see her girlfriend’s expressive eyes as she asked her question. “Are you asking your girlfriend or a profiler?”

“Does it change the answer?”

“Not really…” Tammy chewed her upper lip for a moment, working out how to put it before deciding blunt was best, at least to start with. “...he’s jealous.”

“Of me?” Hannah frowned, thinking back to how angry he’d been when she’d explained about her work now needing to have her take weekly trips to DC - it had surprised her, not that he’d not reacted well to the travelling element of the job, but that he’d not accepted it had positives including dramatically reducing the probability of her ever inadvertently putting Naomi in danger. “Pissed more like.”

“He’s still in love with you.” Tammy anticipated Hannah’s attempt to interject and brought a finger up to rest lightly against protesting lips. “Shh, let me finish?” She removed her finger when she saw Hannah’s small smile and nod, resting her hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, wanting to keep her close and convey with touch she was completely at ease and emotionally secure, despite what she was about to say. “And you love him…” She felt the tension increase again in Hannah’s shoulders and so continued quickly. “...which is why it hurts him when he sees that you are  _ in love  _ with someone that isn’t him.” 

“But he’s in love with Veronica.”

“Not the point baby.” Tammy moved her hand from Hannah’s shoulder to thread in her hair, reacting to the tightening of Hannah’s hold on her when she’d brought up being ‘in love’. “Did you ever take a career decision for him?” From what she knew of Hannah’s life with Ryan before she’d had Naomi, she had a pretty good idea of the answer, but was also fairly certain both Hannah and Ryan would remember it differently.

“Not really…” Hannah trailed off, frowning as she thought about her various postings, unable to think of a single posting she’d said a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to for reasons relating to Ryan. “...I went where I was asked....”

“I’ve never worked overseas,” explained Tammy, seeing Hannah had completely missed her point as she’d rather thought she might. “FBI has opportunities, but you have to really want it and even then it’s usually just a few months. Guess it’s a bit different in NCIS.”

“It’s unusual to have only worked for NCIS and  _ not  _ have an overseas assignment, even if it’s just Agent Afloat,” agreed Hannah, not seeing what Tammy’s point was, but not in a rush to end the topic as it would just mean either talking about Ryan letting Naomi down, or worse, having to go and talk to Naomi about her father letting her down. “Unless they’re like Sebastian and also a specialist.”

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Agent Afloat?”

“I wouldn’t know, not personally…” Hannah trailed off, for the first time thinking about how unusual she must be within the NCIS agents, certainly she was unusual compared to the bulk of the agents’ files she had been given to review as part of assembling ‘Spruce 2.0’ as she’d heard some in DC call it. Most NCIS agents had, as a minimum, an Agent Afloat assignment, with many having more than one, though others were then based in the overseas Field Offices. But she’d done neither. “...I was either assigned to Counter-Terrorism or International Joint Agency Task Forces pretty much from the start.”

“Is that usual?” It sounded to Tammy, with an investigator’s hat on, either a little suspicious that an agent never got to return Stateside, or they were so brilliant it would be considered a waste to have them assigned anywhere other than overseas. As a girlfriend, she knew she was biased but was adamant if she’d ever seen Hannah’s file in an investigation, she’d immediately come across as the brilliant, too valuable to send Stateside, but as an experienced investigator she knew that even agents that brilliant were usually mandated to take a Stateside posting once in a while, unless they had exceptional reasons, and she had a pretty good idea what Hannah’s had been, even if Hannah wasn’t seeing it yet.

“Not very. I started early because my languages and gender were useful, then stayed overseas because…”

_ Bingo  _ thought Tammy, seeing the light dawn for Hannah, though not enough to verbalise it without a nudge. “Because?”

“Because Ryan was MI6.”

“Both of you could work in a third country, but couldn’t be together in either the US or UK?” Tammy hadn’t quite expected Hannah to outright confirm what she’d always suspected but hadn’t ever been directly spoken about by any of the NCIS team - logically it made no sense how Ryan knew what he did about Apollyon unless he had been an active member of the Intelligence Community, but even Tammy’s bluntness didn’t stretch as far as asking if your girlfriend’s ex-husband was a real-life James Bond. It was also confirmation that Hannah’s time as an NCIS Agent prior to her arrival in New Orleans had been rather more Intelligence Agency than Investigative Service, but that was a minor detail now.

“Yes.” Hannah swallowed and cleared her throat, caught between being a proud girlfriend at Tammy’s skills and cross with herself for not seeing it sooner. “He was already planning to leave the Service and take an academic post, Zelko just made it happen sooner.”

“And New Orleans?”

“Fluke…” Hannah shook her head, changing her mind: Tammy deserved to know the truth. “...he started mid-semester, covering for a professor who’d appeared to have had a stroke.”

“Not a stroke?”

“Not a stroke. Early retirement made to look like a health scare then early retirement.” She rested her forehead against Tammy’s and sighed. “James had been CIA, was happy to help keep my family safe when he learned I’d become a target.”

“And Ryan never let you forget that he dropped everything for you,” continued Tammy when it became clear Hannah was disappearing into her own thoughts, though making a mental note that the right post for Ryan to move to had been created because of favours and acts of generosity and kindness that people did to help Hannah. “And ignoring all the decisions you’d made to ensure he could do what he wanted to do all those years.”

“He wanted me to leave when they did, to walk away from work even when staying with them was the dangerous choice.” She lifted up her head, her eyes wet with tears as she was struck by a new thought, one that saw her look at Tammy, puzzled. “How did we get to this again?”

“Because you needed to see the pattern you broke out of Baby.” Tammy caught a trail of moisture as it set off across Hannah’s cheek, not wanting it to wet her shirt, not wanting to see her crying. “Everything that brought you to New Orleans, staying an agent after that jerk Van Cleef tried to mess with you, all that was still you making your life fit around his life.” She stroked Hannah’s damp cheek with her fingers, wishing she’d been able to find a way of avoiding answering Hannah’s original question, or of softening the truth, hating to see her upset, but knowing that had she tried to stall or fudge it, it would in the long run be even more painful.

“But you know I took the DC job for Naomi…” It had been the one that she’d had the greatest negotiating influence with (as a rule, federal agents generally had no negotiating influence), as they’d reached out and approached her rather than Hannah just being one of several applicants for a vacant SAC post once her reinstatement and overdue promotion had come through.

“I know that Baby, but Ryan sees you taking a job out of state while your girlfriend stays in town and keeps her job.” Tammy wasn’t prepared to give him extra credit for being willing to actively participate in parenting his own child - she never understood why her male FBI colleagues with small kids excused themselves from an after-shift drink because they were ‘babysitting’, like the kid wasn’t theirs suddenly if they were the only adult present? But she knew that she was probably in a minority for holding this ‘radical’ view.

If the issue had been just their relationship making it inappropriate for Hannah to be Tammy’s boss, Hannah would still be in the NCIS New Orleans Field Office, as Tammy had refused to let Hannah even consider leaving the City on account of Naomi. She’d been about to make the decision between a Coast Guard led Task Force that needed a Profiler for six months and the FBI in Baton Rouge when Hannah’s promotions had been rushed through and she’d been basically told by email she was now too senior to stay in New Orleans. At first it had felt like Van Cleef was getting the final laugh, with Hannah actually writing a resignation letter, but before she could print it and sign it, she’d been summoned to the SCIF by DC and...actually, Tammy had no idea exactly what happened next, but two hours later SAC Hannah Khoury was leading a NCIS led multi-agency investigation that had something to do with maritime security in the Middle East, had it in writing that every Friday she’d work from the NCIS New Orleans Field Office and it was understood that she’d prefer to travel back to DC on the first flight Monday morning rather than on a Sunday night as much as possible. Six months or so on from that rather tumultuous afternoon, and having now met Henrietta Lange on a few occasions, including twice when she was in the company of Rita Devereaux, and Tammy was beginning to think she didn’t need to be a profiler to put the pieces together.

“So he’s…” Hannah looked at Tammy in surprise as the pieces of the puzzle clicked together for her. “...that’s a Red Card right there.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I’ll kill him.”

“I don’t know what that means Baby.”

“Huh?”

“Red card?”

“Oh.” Hannah grinned, realising what she’d done, her mind still full of the soccer talk she'd had with Naomi while they'd cooked and prepped for dinner later. “You really never followed any sports did you?”

“Nope. You’re my first jock Baby.” Tammy reached out and moved the strand of hair that for some reason just never stayed out of Hannah’s eye away from the side of her face once again, only this time, sensing the lightening of her girlfriend’s mood now a few pieces of her jigsaw puzzle had clicked more tidily into place, she tangled her fingers in dark brown strands and began stroking the back of her neck.

“Hardly,” disputed Hannah, knowing what Tammy was doing but not resisting the attempt to help her recover her good humour, and also knowing that her confusion about the sports term wasn’t an act. “Not sure anyone’s ever called women’s soccer players jocks and meant it.”

“Maybe,” agreed Tammy, knowing Hannah had a point, and also knowing that she’d never seriously be able to picture her as a true ‘jock’ stereotype as she was far too smart and interesting. “But that still doesn’t tell me what the red card is for.”

“It’s when you deliberately foul the opposition to stop play and prevent their advantage, it’s called a professional foul.”

“But don’t they get the restart anyway?”

“Yes, but you have a chance to be ready, rather than be chasing after them out of position.”

“How does that work? I mean, the game’s stopped and the bad guys get to be ready.”

“That’s why it’s called a  _ professional _ foul and what the Red Card is for - deliberately making the foul to stop the play rather than get the ball? When you reset you have the player that committed the foul banned from the pitch.”

“So why risk it?”

“Because there’s always a chance that you might get away with it? If it looks enough like a regular foul, the reset happens and you have all your players still. Or a ‘greater good’ self-sacrifice.” Hannah shrugged, knowing her girlfriend well enough to be able to anticipate what the next question was going to be. “I played centre, like Naomi does - I was fouled  _ a lot,  _ but never carded.”

“Huh.” Tammy momentarily distracted herself with the mental image of Hannah running after a soccer ball, then quickly gave herself a metaphorical punch in the arm and tried to see how this new knowledge applied to the situation with Ryan. “Ryan’s putting himself in Naomi’s bad books for the game tomorrow, but also making you change your plans Sunday night, which gives him a chance to catch up and start over...”. Tammy didn't think it was a perfect comparison, but having heard snippets of the Mother-Daughter soccer conversation while she'd been reading, she could see why it worked for Hannah. 

“And Monday... I can’t…” And it wasn’t like Tammy could take Hannah to the airport and leave Naomi on the house on her own, which would mean having to try an uber or cab again, and  _ that  _ was not an experience she wanted to repeat.

“Take her to school? No, but I can, if you’re okay with it?” Tammy realised Hannah needed catching up on another piece of news she’d missed while cooking with Naomi. “Since Pride and Jimmy can take you to the airport this week, not me.”

“Since when?”

“Since right before your phone rang. You promised your team beignets and Alma’s first two dozen kouign amann have your name on them.” Tammy almost laughed at the look of surprise on Hannah’s face. “Apparently Jimmy still goes in and helps her out some mornings with the baking, so Monday mornings he’s up at four. He’s boxing up two dozen that he swears will be out the oven by five and Pride was going to meet us at the airport with them for you to take." Alma was the owner of Desiree’s, the pastry shop a few doors along from the TruTone that Pride regularly bought the team pastries from, making it the unofficial NCIS approved bakery in New Orleans. It was also where, on discovering that Jimmy had known his way around a kitchen and restaurant, that Pride had got his baby brother firmly anchored on the right track, free from Cassius’ influences. Even after Jimmy had moved to manage the TruTone for his brother, he’d continued to help the woman who’d trusted his brother’s trust in him enough to give him a chance.

“But…”

“Beignets won’t fly well baby, better to bring the agents here.” Tammy kissed Hannah’s lips, not yet sure what was causing her greater surprise - the insistence of Jimmy and Pride on helping her honour her pastry promise or the refusal to let less-than-perfect beignets be tried by the DC agents, but New Orleans was a proud city with standards and reputation to maintain. “So Naomi can get up her usual time and I’ll take her to school, unless you’d rather it was R…” She didn’t get to finish, as Hannah had recovered from whatever her surprise had been and was, based on the kiss Tammy was belatedly but enthusiastically responding to, clearly in favour of the plan. 

“Thank you.”

“Feel better?”

“Much.” Hannah did, though she still wasn’t entirely ready to overlook him being the one to make her tell Naomi he’d be missing her game. “I better go tell her.”

“In a minute.” Tammy laughed when she saw Hannah’s eyebrow raise, gently pushing out of her arms and, picking up the discarded dishcloth tossed it at her. “You can dry up while I wash some more.” Turning on the tap, she put the plug in the sink and eyed the next dishes to be washed with slight suspicion, only to be nudged out of the way by Hannah.

“You dry, I’ll wash.” Unlike Tammy, Hannah didn’t have anything against washing up or drying, being resigned to both being a necessity, whereas Tammy had an absolute loathing of doing the washing up. Unlike Sebastian, Hannah had persisted, knowing that seemingly irrational behaviour was usually as a result of a perfectly rational first decision, and her persistence had been rewarded early on in their relationship, when Tammy had admitted she hated washing up because she’d cut her hand on a knife she’d not seen when washing up as a kid. 

“Sure?” Tammy took the dishcloth and began drying the pan she’d already washed as Hannah took her watch off and put it in her pocket - she learned to not mind doing the washing up after Hannah had cooked, as she’d developed the habit of putting any knives or utensils with a sharp point or edge in a jug to soak as she used them. She’d started doing it after asking Tammy about the faint scar on her palm one day, and quickly worked out it wasn’t something she ever wanted to happen to Naomi either.

“Sure.” Hannah lifted out the chopping board and put it on the rack to drain. “So…” She wanted to change the subject away from her past with Ryan and had sudden inspiration. “...what would score me bonus points on this break I’m planning?” She looked down at Tammy’s feet, “aside from carpet and underfloor heating?”


	19. Chapter 19

Shutting the front door, Tammy paused, momentarily surprised by the completely silent and still house. She’d left a couple of hours earlier to go and pick up Hannah’s ‘DC clothes’ that she’d left in Tammy’s room, having originally planned to spend Sunday night there as it was a slightly easier trip to the airport. Now though, with Naomi staying Sunday night with her Mom, that had meant a trip to collect the suit, raincoat and black leather laced Oxfords she’d flown down wearing on Thursday night, which Tammy had done on her own while Hannah and Naomi went to Ryan’s house to pick up the things Naomi needed for school on Monday. Hannah’s plan had been that her trip to Ryan’s house with Naomi should take no more than five minutes longer than however long it needed for Naomi to repack her schoolbag. Therefore, no matter how fast Tammy was at grabbing Hannah’s clothes and saying ‘hi’ to Sebastian if he was home, she should have been returning to an occupied house….so this quiet was disconcerting.

_ “Not fair!”  _

Tammy grinned when she heard Naomi’s plaintive wail of protest float in from the backyard, her mystery solved and her anxiety chased away, especially when she heard her girlfriend’s laughter quickly followed by the increasingly familiar sound of a soccer ball bouncing on the ground. They’d clearly been back long enough for Hannah to be persuaded into letting Naomi go out into the small backyard to play some sort of soccer based game in the yard while they waited for Tammy’s return. Tossing her keys in the ‘where the keys live’ bowl on the side table, she dumped the bag she’d packed with Hannah’s clothes on the bed in their room and headed out to the backyard.

“Tammy!”

“Hi sweetheart.” She smiled at Naomi as she pulled her hair up into a sloppy ponytail and secured it with the hair elastic she’d had on her wrist, taking in Naomi’s red cheeks and mussed hair and Hannah looking...exactly like Hannah looked after they’d just finished wrestling a suspect, so perfectly irritatingly ordinary, tidy and neat, apart from her feet, which were in sneakers rather than boots. “Who’s winning.”

“Mom, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Tammy raised an eyebrow at Hannah, seeing if she agreed with Naomi’s summary, getting a shrug and a raised eyebrow of her own as a response, which Tammy correctly untangled to mean Hannah had no idea they were playing a competitive game with scoring, and she was concerned that Tammy was alright given how long her quick trip home had taken. Her grin and nod seemed to reassure Hannah, who went back to concentrating on bouncing the soccer ball in the air using both feet in some sort of alternating pattern that appeared to favour her right foot.

“She keeps cheating!”

“Huh.” Tammy leaned back against the verandah post and crossed her arms, fixing a ‘so you’re the suspect’ look that Hannah recognised all too well from NCIS, then turned to look at Naomi in the same way. “That sounds unlike your Mom.”

“Well…” Naomi scuffed the dirt with the toe of one sneaker, cracking under Tammy’s calm look. “...maybe more sneaky than cheating.”

“Sneaky how?” Tammy was sufficiently aware of the unspoken rule that automatic siding with Hannah would be a fast way to Naomi and her having a bit of an issue, but that equally, too much automatic siding with Naomi against Hannah would see her not invited over quite so quickly, so in order to tiptoe through this rather unpredictable potential minefield, she’d taken to favouring plenty of evidence gathering before picking any side.

“Using her right foot.”

“Is that not allowed?” Tammy was not a natural student of soccer, or any sport for that matter, but one of Sebastian’s interrogation points earlier had been ‘which foot was Naomi’ which had not only confused Tammy, but prompted a long explanation of its importance by Patton, though Loretta had been surprisingly opinionated too.

“No! She’s too good.”

“So you want your Mom to be deliberately bad so you can be better than her?” Tammy pulled a face at that, not liking the logic. “How does that work?”

“It…” Naomi had previously learned the slightly hard way that the ‘it just does’ defence didn’t cut it with her Mom, and pointing out that Tammy used it to get her own way with Sebastian had also not been the smartest move she’d ever made either, which she quickly realised meant she either had a telling off in her future or a swift change of mind was needed. “...it does get a bit boring,” agreed Naomi, chewing on her lip as she glanced at her Mom, who appeared to be concentrating on the soccer ball she was doing ‘keepy uppy’ with, but Naomi knew her Mom’s sixth sense was also pointed in her direction, so decided to continue with the truth. “But I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do if she can play with both feet, as she always gets the ball.”

“Can’t you do something different?”

“Like what?”

“No idea sweetheart, I don’t know soccer.” Tammy leaned forwards and shifted from her normal speaking voice to a very loud stage whisper, knowing Hannah’s apparent fixation with the soccer ball was one hell of a good act, but she was paying attention to them. “But we both know someone not far from here who does. You could ask her?”

There was a prolonged silence, broken only by the occasional quiet thump when the soccer ball was out of the range of Hannah’s foot or leg so she let it bounce on the grass, while Naomi thought her way through her current dilemma. At first Tammy was concerned that what she’d thought was a fairly obvious point to make to a clearly smart kid was taking so long for Naomi to react to, but she decided to trust her gut, and her gut was telling her that whatever she’d stumbled into Hannah felt she was handling alright so she tried to find a bit more patience and wait on Naomi.

“Mom?”

“Yes Baby?” WIthout appearing to do anything different that Tammy could spot, the next time Hannah moved her foot to line up with the falling soccer ball, she stopped it dead on the ground, abandoning all pretence of giving Naomi anything other than her full attention.

“Why did you start playing with your right foot?”

“Because you’re too good for my left foot now.” Hannah’s straightforward direct response caught Tammy off-guard, still learning about Hannah-the-Mom and for some reason, she’d thought she’d be not quite as direct and to the point as Hannah-the-NCIS-agent.

“But you’re too good for me.” Naomi almost sounded like she was about to start whining, but it seemed to Tammy that she was like Hannah in how she tried to manage her emotions too, as she saw Naomi catch herself from saying anything else in exactly the same way she’d come to see Hannah do, and instead take a couple of breaths. “Your legs are too long.”

Tammy nearly bit through her lip as she tried to contain her laughter at Naomi’s declaration, laughter that very nearly broke through when she caught Hannah’s impeccable poker face and raised her eyebrow, prompting Hannah to blush for a split second - Tammy’s thoughts on Hannah’s legs were very detailed and obtained after extensive, hands on research that had seen her form the view that her girlfriend’s long legs were just the right length for all manner of wonderfulness, and definitely not too long.

“Too long how?” queried Hannah, trying to ignore Tammy almost giving herself hiccups in an attempt to keep quiet, something Hannah was glad about - it wasn’t that she didn’t trust her girlfriend to keep her comments ‘Naomi-appropriate’, Hannah had total faith in her there. No, it was her own reaction to Tammy’s non-reaction to Naomi drawing attention to her legs being long that was making Hannah nervous, her memory all too quick to supply her with reminders of how Tammy had determined her legs were just the right amount of long enough.

“Not too long…” Naomi had drifted near enough to snag the soccer ball with her foot and begin gently shuffling it between her feet. “...just longer than mine...like the girls on the other teams...” It was fascinating, noted Tammy, studying Naomi in the same way she remembered watching suspects and witnesses that were in the interrogation room with Hannah, how skillfully she could take a slight discrepancy in a lie or moment of unplanned self-reflection and work it open, either gently as she was doing with her daughter, or more abruptly like she’d done with countless suspects. “...they keep getting the ball when I think I’ve still got it…” Naomi looked at her mother with a mildly accusatory look. “For me to get the ball from you I have to get really close and get told I’m fouling, but you can just stick your leg out.”

Tammy zoned out of the conversation, content to just listen to the sound of their voices as she watched their interaction turn increasingly technical looking as Naomi, now in the right frame of mind, was learning some new sort of tactic from Hannah. Their original plan for the afternoon, assuming Naomi had finished enough of her homework, had been to watch a film together when they all returned from their errands, but now, watching the impromptu soccer class, Tammy was glad her delay had prompted this change to their plans.

She’d known she’d been longer than she’d expected to be for the quick clothing grab, but she’d not expected to see Sebastian hosting Patton and Loretta for their version of an afternoon of unofficial ‘soccer school’. They were taking their invitation from Naomi to watch her match seriously and refused to entertain the idea that they didn’t need to be in full possession of a decent understanding of the game. Her unannounced arrival had seen her fast visit plan immediately disappear when she quickly drawn into the study session, while Hannah’s plan for a high speed visit to her ex-husband’s house had been made easier by them dropping by when he was out.

Tammy’s interrogation, lasting just long enough for her to drink the mug of coffee Sebastian automatically made for her as a sure-fire way to get her to sit still for twenty minutes, was something she was actually looking forward to telling Hannah about later. Not only was it further proof about the genuine affection the NCIS ‘family’ had for Naomi and her, but it had been nice to see the three of them interacting with each other as...she was about to call them ‘nerds’ but stopped herself, unable to think of Loretta in such terms as she usually wore her scientific enthusiasm more elegantly than the other two. But what she’d been lacking in sport science enthusiasm she more than compensated for with the variant of parental pride that Tammy was slowly getting to grips with herself.

“Hey!” She was quite literally bumped out of her thoughts by the soccer ball hitting her in the shin and then bouncing down the steps off the verandah.

“We called your name three times,” pointed out Naomi, in between giggles at what had just happened, not sure she’d believe her Mom had just done that if she’d not seen it herself.

“So you decide to kick the ball at me?” Tammy huffed in mock outrage, certain that if there had been maliciousness in the kick Hannah wouldn’t have been standing with that funny ‘trying not to laugh’ look on her face.

“Nooo….” Naomi’s giggles were becoming nearer to full blown laughter as she realised Tammy thought she’d kicked the ball. “...wasn’t like that.”

“Are you sure?” Tammy looked down at her black jean clad shins, as if expecting to see a dusty mark where the ball had made contact with her. “Because it didn’t float over here.”

“It wasn’t me.” Naomi instinctively reached out with her foot and gathered the soccer ball, which had finished its rolling bounce down from the verandah and was a couple of feet away from her, just in the way if she needed to make a quick sprint out of the way if Tammy decided to launch a tickle attack. “It was Mom!”

“Ha!” Tammy turned to her girlfriend, her attempt to glare at her completely undermined by the broad grin she was also sporting.

“What?” Hannah’s innocent expression was usually very good, but she’d been distracted by the pure joy she was feeling seeing Naomi so at ease with Tammyy, who was taking her breath away countless times a day at how thoughtful and careful she was being with Naomi’s feelings. “That doesn’t sound like me…” 

Naomi’s giggles turned into full blown laughter at her Mom’s attempt to look and sound innocent of the ‘crime’ of kicking the ball at Tammy.

“No?” Tammy continued towards her, like she was stalking a prey, her Brooklyn accent thickening, eyes sparkling with amusement as she heard Naomi’s laughter. “I mean, before today I’d never seen you kick a ball…” 

Hannah, Tammy knew from NCIS, was disinclined to brag about herself and even less keen on anything that might be labelled ‘showing off’, and in ‘Mom’ mode she was even more matter-of-fact about getting on with things and not drawing attention to her own skills and achievements. Even after a few months together, and despite knowing each other before that, Tammy was still trying to work out how to get Hannah to believe that she genuinely wanted to hear about the amazing things she’d done and could do, without the need to self-censure herself and downplay her abilities or achievements. Soccer had been a classic example - given how good Hannah clearly had been, most would, even almost twenty years later, need little persuasion to ‘show off’ just a bit, even if it was hidden behind the excuse of ‘teaching’ their soccer-illiterate girlfriend some of the basics. But instead, when Tammy had admitted she had always been ostracised from the street and yard kickabouts her brothers and male cousins were constantly having, along with her female relations, Hannah had commiserated with her about the youthful chauvinism and changed the subject.

“...and now you kick one  _ at  _ me…” teased Tammy, knowing that whatever had happened to make Naomi want to include Hannah in her backyard kickabout, it was momentous, as for the entire time Tammy had been going out with Hannah, Naomi had been politely insistent that she was ‘fine thanks’ and kicked the ball against the low concrete wall or did keepy uppy on her own. “...like my cousin Joey did in 8th Grade.”

“Your cousin Joey kicked a soccer ball at you?” asked Naomi, managing to get her laughter under control to ask her question - she was struggling to imagine Tammy in High School, but she was finding it even harder to imagine what sort of an idiot was cousin Joey for thinking it was a good idea. She wasn’t entirely certain it was a good idea now, though if anyone was going to get away without Tammy getting mad, it would be her Mom… or maybe Sebastian, though Naomi was finding it even harder to imagine him kicking a soccer ball.

“No, he kicked it at Antonia Pagliacio.” Tammy looked at Naomi, somehow managing to answer her question perfectly seriously while still tracking towards Hannah, who was under no illusion that Tammy was going to do  _ something  _ when she reached Hannah, but the only thing that was helping Hannah narrow down the possibilities was the certain belief that Tammy would keep it twelve-year-old-appropriate. “Who he had a crush on.”

“What did she do to him?” Naomi didn’t think it sounded like a particularly successful way of trying to get someone who you liked to like you back, but she wasn’t going to make that point to Tammy and her Mom, especially considering they seemed to really like each other and they were both really good at understanding people. Then again, maybe decided Naomi, it was the sort of logic that was different for eighth grade boys and people like Tammy and her Mom.

“Threw her soda in his face.” 

“You haven’t got any soda.”

“No sweetheart…” Tammy caught Hannah’s eye and raised her eyebrow in challenge. “...and your Mom and I aren’t in eighth grade.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’m not scared of girls…” began Tammy, suddenly breaking into a sprint, straight for Hannah, who laughing, sidestepped and ran a couple of paces in a half-hearted attempt to evade being caught, which quickly came to a halt when she slowed, allowing Tammy to ‘catch’ her in a hug.

“You stopped running Mom!” pointed out Naomi, rather redundantly, grinning brightly at her Mom’s silly behaviour with Tammy. “Why’d you stop running?”

“Because…” Hannah had been going to mimic Tammy’s answer and say she wasn’t scared of girls either, but checked herself. “...only bad guys run from Tammy.”

“And you’re one of the good guys,” agreed Naomi, something in her eyes changing that Hannah saw but didn’t recognise.

“She’s the best,” agreed Tammy, giving Hannah a final squeeze then releasing her from the hug but keeping hold of her hand. She’d also seen the subtle shift in Naomi’s eyes, but unlike Hannah, had recognised it and had a pretty good idea what it meant. “And so are you.” Tammy held her other hand out and gestured for Naomi to come closer. After a pause, Naomi started moving, and with a few gentle pulls on her hand by Tammy, Hannah’s feet also started to move and the trio ended up meeting in the middle. “So…” continued Tammy, pleased when Naomi instinctively gravitated to Hannah’s side and Hannah ran her fingers through her daughter’s ponytail. “...what’s bugging you sweetheart?”

“Wha…?” Naomi pulled back from her Mom’s side, completely surprised and wrong-footed by the question from Tammy, which, judging from her Mom’s expression, was how she felt too.

“Tam….” began Hannah, not sure what was happening, turning into protective ‘Momma Bear’ in an instant, which helped Naomi find her voice again.

“She’s right Mom,” she said quietly, drifting back to her Mom’s side, but this time she reached out and took hold of Tammy’s free hand too, surprising the agent but Naomi didn’t see as she was looking with intense focus at her sneakers. “Maybe not bugging…” She chewed her lower lip, missing another small smile from Tammy as she discovered yet another movement that ‘mini Hannah’ shared with the full-sized version, marvelling once again at how like her Mom Naomi was. “...puzzle.” Naomi nodded to herself and looked up at the two concerned faces. “There is something I’m puzzled by.” She focussed on Tammy, a new thought occurring to her. “How’d you guess? Mom didn’t.”

“I pay attention…ah…” Tammy’s friendly warning that she maybe wasn’t finished was understood and both Hannah and Naomi closed their mouths, their protestestations silenced. “...we can’t see what our eyes do when we look at something, only others see it. I pay attention to your Mom, and she gets this look when she’s got questions...” Tammy paused, frustrated with herself for not quite describing what she meant well enough, trying to work out what she hadn’t got right.

“That’s her frowny-but-not-frowning face.” Naomi did her version of it, earning her a grin and a wink from Tammy. “I didn’t do that.”

“No, you didn’t.” Tammy squeezed her girlfriend’s hand, grateful for her letting her have the moment with Naomi. “That’s because your Mom does that face when she’s got questions because she doesn’t understand stuff.” Or when she understands perfectly that a perp is lying through their teeth, but Tammy kept that insight to herself. “But sometimes we all have questions we want to ask because we understand fine, but we want to know more.” Tammy looked away from Naomi to her thoughtful but confused girlfriend. “Yesterday, our case? Right before you asked about the aircraft hanger?”

“Ah.” Hannah gave a perfect demonstration of what Naomi had called her ‘frowny-but-not-frowning’ face, highlighting as well that her daughter was a rather good mimic, before giving up on worrying about what this apparent ‘tell’ of hers was that, as far as she knew, only Tammy had ever noticed.

“Your Mom’s eyes do this thing...I can’t explain it, but yours did it too.” Tammy shrugged, then grinned slyly. “Nice attempt at redirect there sweetheart, but no dice.” She tugged their hands gently again, guiding them over to the short run of steps that led back up to the verandah, deciding it might be easier for Naomi if they were all sat down in the sun, as then she wouldn’t be talking to their ribs. “What’s puzzling you?” she asked, once Hannah and Naomi were sat down on the middle step, Tammy deliberately picking the step a couple below, positioning herself in the middle so she was on neither Mom nor daughter’s side, and also able to quietly leave them if her presence wasn’t helpful.

“Umm…” Naomi fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt, her leg bouncing as she became nervous.

“Baby?” Hannh reached forwards and gently put her hand on her daughter’s knee, helping to break the spasming cycle. “Just talk baby, don’t worry about the words.”

“I’ll go…” Tammy started to stand up, thinking her presence was what was making it difficult for Naomi to start, only to be stopped by the girl reaching out and touching her arm, making it clear she was supposed to stay. So she shifted into a slightly less cramp inducing position and waited quietly, trying not to panic about what sort of chaos she’d started.

“I...just now…” Naomi waved her hand back towards the patch of grass, where the soccer ball sat, forgotten about for the moment. “When you chased Mom…”

Tammy opened her mouth to try to explain she was just messing, only to see another of Hannah’s looks perfectly replicated by Naomi and just as effective: she closed her mouth and stayed quiet.

“...and you let her catch you…” Naomi turned her attention to Hannah, deep in thought. “...you...you reminded me of before, with Dad.”

“Before when?” Hannah, Tammy could tell, was working hard on keeping her voice calm and her body relaxed, but the day’s determination to keep bringing up Ryan was starting to get old fast. “Before the divorce?”

“Mmm, no, yes, I mean…” Naomi closed her eyes tight as she tried to pick out something from the memory that would help her place when she was meaning. “...before Dad and I came here.” She opened her eyes again. “Before it got weird.”

“Ah.” Hannah was used to Naomi describing the period from Naomi moving at the rush to New Orleans with Ryan and now as ‘weird’, but she hadn’t ever managed to work out or ask whether the ‘weird’ was life in general for the girl or specifically the dynamics in her parents’ relationship, which, if she thought she could get away with such a simple summary, Hannah would also describe as ‘weird’.

“It was nice.”

“Baby, your Dad and I…”

“Love each other in a way that can’t be broken and will always be my Mom and Dad, but aren’t the same ‘in love with each other’ any more that adults need in a relationship to make it work,” rattled off Naomi confidently, causing Tammy’s eyebrows to nearly leave her forehead in surprise, not expecting such a practiced or polished explanation of divorced parent dynamics. “I know Mom, Dad explained it to me.”

“He did?” Hannah might as well have had a cartoon style thought bubble hanging above her head saying  _ ‘I’ll kill him’  _ but Tammy hoped Naomi couldn’t see it. “When?”

“Before I met Veronica.” She leaned forwards, like she was about to share a giant secret with her Mom, though she made no attempt to actually quieten her voice. “I don’t think he thought about you meeting someone.”

“What makes you say that?” 

“He said ‘I might fall in love with someone’ who wasn’t you.” Naomi had this year started learning Spanish in school and, while it wasn’t the only language she’d learned, unlike the bits of Arabic she’d learned in Oman from her Mom and her friends, this was the first language she was being formally taught, meaning she now understood about verb tenses and singular and plural pronouns. “He should have said ‘we’, shouldn’t he? Because there’s two of you? If he was thinking of you and not just him.” Naomi sat back again, feeling she’d said as much as she wanted to on the topic, bringing Tammy back into her eyeline. “Are you in love with my Mom?”

“Naomi!”

“It’s fine Baby…” Tammy smiled at Hannah, suddenly extra relieved that for whatever reason they’d had the conversation they’d had on Thursday night, even without it, she knew exactly how to answer Naomi’s question, but she was glad this wasn’t the way Hannah heard her say it for the first time. “Yes sweetheart, I am in love with your Mom.”

“Good.” Naomi felt much better hearing her answer, not remotely aware of the herds of butterflies that were currently trampling through the stomachs of the two adults as they waited to see what she asked next. “You know you don’t have to pretend to chase Mom to hug her.” Naomi rubbed her shin, thinking she could feel a bug crawling up it, which then meant she saw her sneaker lace was a bit loose, so she started to untie and retie it, missing the rather panicked exchange of looks between the two adults. “She’s in love with you too, and I don’t mind if you want to kiss and stuff with me around.” Lace retied she looked up and saw the rather shocked expressions on both their faces. “What? I  **_am_ ** twelve…” She spent most of her infrequent debates with her Dad having to remind him she wasn’t eight anymore, so that was her first automatic assumption everytime she did something that surprised a grown-up, though she didn’t usually have that issue with Tammy, who now she looked at her, seemed to have a look on her face that was just as strange as the one on her Mom’s. “Wait…” She looked from Tammy to her Mom and leveled a serious glare at her. “You had told her you were in love with her?”

“Yes.” Hannah wanted to shake her head at her daughter’s head on approach to this most delicate of subjects, but was at a complete loss as to how to respond with anything other than answers to her questions.

“Good.” Satisfied, Naomi stood up and dusted her shorts clean, clearly feeling the conversation was over.

“How did you know?” Tammy’s curiosity outweighed her anxiety, knowing her girlfriend’s anxiety would be about an eleven hundred out of ten until they knew the answer, so concerned was Hannah about not making a bigger mess (as she saw it, but no one else did) of being a mom.

“When you hugged her, she did her special laugh and smile. Dad used to call it his luckiest guy in the world smile and laugh. But I’d guessed a while back.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“He made me promise not to tell you he called it that when he told me.”

“When was this?”

“Christmas, before we went to Oman. I asked Dad why you didn’t laugh like that with me.” Naomi, suddenly realising she was maybe talking about things she didn’t necessarily fully understand, quickly shuffled across the step she was stood on and sat down again, practically in her Mom’s lap. “I’d snuck out of bed to look for Santa.” Both blushed at the pinpointing of the memory, though Tammy was certain it was for different reasons and that it was a story she possibly only wanted to hear from Naomi, not Hannah. “He took me back to bed and told me it was his special laugh because he was the luckiest guy in the world because you were in love with him and that I had my own special laugh too.”

“You know I love you more than anyone in the whole world?”

“I know Mom.” Naomi wrapped her arms around Hannah’s shoulders and gave her an extra squeezy hug, then whispered something in her ear, which caused Hannah to laugh what Tammy recognised as her girlfriend’s ‘amused and proud Mom’ laugh, since she’d never heard it be triggered by anything or anyone other than Naomi, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on what was so unique and distinctive about it, it just was.

“Sure baby, I’ll ask or we can use something as a target.”

“Thanks Mom!” And, with all the exuberance of youthfulness, Naomi clattered up the rest of the stairs and ran into the house, the screen door slamming behind her.

“Bathroom break?”

“Yeah, then I’m supposed to ask you if you’ll help her learn a new soccer move.”

“Me?” Tammy moved up a stair and across a bit, so she was sat only one step below Hannah and near enough that she could brush some bits of grass from her sneakers. “I can’t kick or whatever…”

“No kicking needed, just your company…” promised Hannah, leaning forwards and, dissatisfied with how far away Tammy was, shifting down a step. “...you okay?”

“Me?” Tammy caught hold of Hannah’s hand and kissed the knuckles before starting to stroke the back of her hand with her thumb. “I’m more worried about you.”

“I’m…”

“...not going to kill him,” reminded Tammy gently, wrapping her other arm around Hannah’s tense shoulders, willing her to relax. “He should have told you he’d had that talk with her, but sounds like he did a pretty decent job with it.” Tammy didn’t think all that much of Ryan’s performance as an ex-husband at times, but she did have to admit he seemed to be doing a pretty decent job at being a parent in moments like this. “She’s a lot like you.”

“Blunt, uncompromising and embarrassingly direct?” muttered Hannah, nevertheless relaxing into the now familiar and reassuring warmth of Tammy’s side as she let her head rest on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“Smart, observant, and articulate.” Tammy pressed a kiss to Hannah’s forehead.

“What do we do now?”

“Wait for her to come back then you both explain to me how I’m supposed to help with a soccer lesson without needing to play any soccer?” suggested Tammy, deliberately misinterpreting her girlfriend’s anxiety fueled question.

“Yes, but…”

“No buts,” corrected Tammy gently, kissing Hannah’s head again, wishing she could kiss her properly, but that would mean releasing her hold on her completely, and she wasn’t prepared to let go, not when she could feel the tension Hannah was holding in her back muscles despite Tammy holding her close. “It’s nice to know she’s okay with us hugging and stuff in front of her, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to make out with you in the kitchen while she’s eating cereal.” Tammy felt Hannah shift against her, her silly suggestion having the right impact on their ‘moment’.

“No?” Not that Hannah disagreed with Tammy’s decision, but she was curious to hear the uniquely Tammy reason for that particular rule being the first one that came to mind.

“I don’t like burnt toast.” Tammy grinned when she felt Hannah push up from her side, her quick come-back surprising her girlfriend. “And your toaster hates me.”

“And this affects us kissing while Naomi’s eating cereal how?”

“If she’s having cereal, it means you’re not making pancakes or waffles, which means I’m making us toast.” Tammy leaned forwards and gently kissed her bemused girlfriend’s lips while she waited for Hannah to catch up.

“And you hate burnt toast.”

“The smell makes my stomach turn,” confirmed Tammy, automatically tucking a stray strand of hair behind Hannah’s ear. “So I need to pay attention to the toaster, because it hates me.”

“Think we’ll go past a Walmart on the way to the game tomorrow?” Hannah leaned into Tammy’s hand, turning her head after she’d asked her question so she could kiss the palm, instinctively craving more contact with her girlfriend but unwilling to move as that meant breaking physical connection they already had.

“I guess…” Tammy took the kiss as a hint to keep her hand where it was, so she started aimlessly stroking her way along elegant cheek and jaw bones with finger and thumb while she tried to remember her Nola geography well enough to pinpoint if there was a store on the way to Naomi’s match. “...why?”

“Because I’m buying a toaster that likes you.”


End file.
